Spanish Beginner 1

If you have little or no previous knowledge of Spanish, Beginner 1 is the right level for you. Speak and hear Spanish from the first day as you quickly gain basic conversation skills to communicate information about yourself, your family and friends, your work, and your daily life. Learn pronunciation, expressions, and vocabulary that allow you to function in everyday settings.

Practise your new language skills in a relaxed environment with the support of our passionate and experienced instructors. Between classes, you can practise your skills using online resources chosen by your instructor.

By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:

• introduce yourself, to greet, to identify yourself
• talk about one's profession
• tell time and discuss one’s schedule
• give and ask for a telephone number or address
• describe people and places
• speak about everyday actions

Course outline

This is not a prescriptive list. Exact course outlines will be determined by the instructor to best meet the needs of the class. It is meant to serve as a guideline and suggest what may be covered at this level. It is often necessary to repeat levels in order to become completely comfortable with the skills at each stage with a different teacher and style.

Communicative Objectives

• introduce oneself, to greet, to identify oneself
• talk about one’s profession
• tell time and discuss one’s schedule 
• give and ask for a telephone number or address
• describe people and places
• speak about everyday actions
• accept or decline an invitation
• express what one wants
• order in a restaurant, make reservations
• buy in a market
• express a future action

Linguistic Objectives

• Pronunciation, phonetics
• Conjugation in present tense of regular - AR, - ER and - IR verbs and irregular verbs to be, to want, to go
• Pronouns: personal (yo, tú, él, etc.)
• Question words and question methods
• Singular, plural, masculine, feminine
• Negation
• Adverbs of quantity and frequency (a veces, nunca, todos los días, etc.)
• Courtesy expressions (perdón, lo siento, etc.)
• Numbers
• Professions

Textbook

This course requires the purchase of the textbook Soleado. Students can order this book from the UBC Bookstore.

How am I assessed?

This is a non-credit course without letter or numerical grades. You receive verbal feedback on your conversation and grammar skills from your instructor during class. Written homework is typically corrected in class. Some lesson modules may include quizzes.

Record of completion

A record of completion will be emailed to students who participate and satisfy the course requirements within two weeks of the course end date. Course completion means 80% attendance and/or 80% completion of mandatory assignments.

Technology requirements

You’ll need access to a laptop or desktop computer or tablet, an email account, and internet access and an up-to-date web browser. For real-time classes, you’ll also need access to a video camera and microphone.

Course format

This course may be offered online, in-person, or a combination of both. Please see Available Sessions for details on the course format.

Materials will be available in Canvas for three weeks after the course ends, after which time you will no longer be able to access the course.

Learn more about online learning at Extended Learning.