Study programme: beginners

This course is designed to enable you to practise your speaking and listening skills in a Spanish environment while at the same time revising the essential vocabulary and grammatical structures of Portales.

Classroom at the residencia (image).

The timetable includes a minimum of 25 hours of tuition with experienced native teachers of Spanish, plus optional language workshops and activities.

You will be working with your personal tutor in some classes, and you will also be taught by other tutors in the course, to allow you to experience a variety of teaching styles and native accents.

Group sizes are small, with a maximum of 12 students per class. This allows for plenty of interaction with different people in the classroom.

We provide you with all the necessary course materials, but we do recommend you bring a small dictionary. The materials we provide for this course include a course book.

Course description:

This course is designed for students who are taking the Open University course L194/LZX194 Portales. The course covers vocabulary and listening/speaking/reading/writing activities on the following topics:

The course covers the following grammatical areas:

Classroom activities include short presentations, dialogues and role-plays, gathering and exchanging information, and collaborative activities. Some activities are designed to develop confidence and fluency in speaking, whilst others concentrate on developing writing skills. There is also an individual oral task during the course which will help you prepare for the speaking End of Course Assessment (ECA).

Here is a sample timetable for the week:

Time Saturday Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
8.00 - 8.45

10.00 - 4:00

Registration

Breakfast
9.00 - 10.30 Session 3 Session 5 Session 8 Session 10 Session 12 Session 15
10.30 - 11.00 Break
11.00 - 12.30 Session 4 Session 6 Session 9 Session 11 Session 13 Session 16
12.30 - 1.00 Preparation Alicante visit Free time Course closure
1.00 - 2.00 Free time Free time Free time Free time 12:45 - 1:45
Oral task
2.00 - 3.00 Lunch
(registration continues) 		Lunch
3.15 - 4.45 3:00 - 4.00
Registration 		Alicante Visit Session 7 Afternoon Excursion to Elche Free afternoon Session 14
4.45 - 5.00 4.30 - 5.00 Welcome Break Break
5:00 - 6:30 Session 1 Preparation oral task 5.00 - 6.00 Options
Break Break
6.30 - 7.30 6.30 - 6.45 Break

6:15 - 8:30

San Vicente town quiz

6:15 - 7:15 Options
7.30 - 8.30 6.45 - 8.15 Session 2 Break
8.30 - 9.30 Dinner
9.30 Welcome drink Film San Vicente Feedback Film Film

Please note that the timetable is provisional, and might be subject to minor changes. The swimming pool will be available in the period before lunch, and in the afternoons.

As you can see, we have packed the week with plenty of learning opportunities: you will have approximately 4 hours' tuition each day, and there will be optional activities too. Options may range from grammar activities, speaking activities, pronunciation practice, or aspects of Spanish culture. The visits are an integral part of the programme, and give you the opportunity to practise your language skills with the locals. But it's not all work! We have included in the programme plenty of opportunities to get out, enjoy the location and all it has to offer.

The excursion on Tuesday afternoon:

The excursion on Tuesday afternoon is to Elche. Elche is a small town situated 23 km south of Alicante. It is famous for being the place where “La dama de Elche” - an Iberian sculpture from around the fourth century B.C. - was found, and for its palm trees. Its palm groves (known as El Palmeral) are a UNESCO World Heritage site. There are over 200,000 palm trees in Elche, approximately one per inhabitant! Elche has many wonderful sights, including the castle (now an archeological museum), the Basílica de Santa María, la Casa de la Festa (where you can find out about the famous “Misterio de Elche”), the Arab bathhouse, and the town hall.

To find out more about Elche you can visit the Turisme d'elx site.