Hereford Sixth Form College
Spanish
Find a course
Spanish A Level
This course aims to develop high levels of competence in understanding, speaking and writing Spanish and a deeper knowledge of Spanish and Latin American culture and civilisation.
Learning Spanish develops communication and problem solving skills. It also helps to improve your social skills, confidence and awareness of Hispanic culture.
Spanish makes you think. It encourages you to question your own ideas and express your point of view. It is a challenging, but highly rewarding subject.
A Level Spanish
What does the course involve?
Over the two years you will study:
- Social Issues and Trends.
- Political and Artistic Culture.
- Literary Texts and Film.
- Grammar.
The work is presented in context through newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television programmes, film, video and the internet.
You are expected to go over material covered in class every day to build your knowledge of the language and vocabulary. It is essential to maintain detailed vocabulary and grammar notes and you will write short essays on the topics you study.
There are weekly tests, comprehension and grammar exercises, translations and the preparation of texts for classroom study or oral presentation.
Assessment
Paper 1: Listening, reading and writing (50% of A level).
Paper 2: One text and one film essay (20% of A level).
Paper 3: Oral (30% of A level).
Resources and facilities
It is important to read widely and the Library has an excellent range of magazines and books, many with accompanying CDs, in Spanish. There is also an extensive collection of Spanish films available for you to borrow.
Trips
Students are advised to attend a residential trip to Seville; which includes 20 hours of lessons taught by native speakers.
Whilst studying Spanish in the first year, I attended the Seville trip. It was an amazing experience which really highlighted the amount of Spanish we had learnt since GCSE. The ability to use our learning to speak and understand native Spanish speakers, whilst immersing ourselves in authentic Spanish culture was an incredible feeling.
What can you do after the course?
The knowledge of a European language increases your career prospects, whatever you choose to specialise in. Recent data from Oxford University shows that 93% of modern language graduates go straight into employment or further study.
Spanish can help you gain access to top jobs in business, banking, finance, journalism, law, public relations and the civil service. There are opportunities in tourism, the media, the diplomatic service, translation and interpreting.
Spanish is spoken by 400 million native speakers in over 20 countries.