Spanish is the third most widely spoken mother tongue in the world, with over 430 million native speakers. It is spoken in Spain and over 20 countries in South and Central America. Spanish is the language of one of the largest cities on earth: Mexico City.
With an ever-increasing presence in the global market, emerging economies in the Americas mean that the chance of work and business opportunities from Spanish knowledge (whether working directly for or dealing with such companies) is increasing. For example, Mexico is seen as one of the fastest growing countries in the world, with a booming consumer market – knowledge of Spanish is essential to ‘tap in’ and access this market.
The vast range of countries that speak Spanish makes an understanding of the language very useful for those who want to travel and experience such countries. Knowing the local language can greatly enhance one’s experience, allowing a greater understanding and appreciation of culture, history and the physical environment. Spanish has emerged as the most important language for the UK in an analysis made by the British Council. Spain is the most popular holiday destination for the British: over 16 million Britons spend their holidays in Spain each year. Furthermore Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations and the third most widely used language on the Internet.
Course Content
Content is organised into five themes, each one is broken down into topics and sub-topics.
The five themes are:
- Identity and culture
- Local area, holiday and travel
- School
- Future aspirations, study and work
- International and global dimension
Assessment
Using audio material provided by the examination board.
Students’ comprehension will be tested by a range of question types, normally requiring non-verbal responses or responses in English or Spanish. There is a short section of translation from Spanish into English.
Students complete three tasks.
- Task 1 – a role play based on one topic.
- Task 2 – a task containing a picture and questions drawn from one topic.
- Task 3 – conversation based on two themes. The first theme is based on the topic chosen by the student in advance of the assessment. The second theme is selected by the teacher from a choice of two themes allocated by the exam board.
The paper consists of two questions and one translation from English into Spanish.
| Key Course Details | |
|---|---|
| Exam board | Edexcel |
| Assessment | Written examination (75%) |
| Speaking assessment (25%) |