Learn Spanish in Melbourne

Hola!

Spanish is one of the most sought after languages at Lyceum. As a result we have an extensive range of classes at each level for each centre.

Spanish is one of the easiest foreign languages to learn because it is phonetic – meaning that each letter of the alphabet is pronounced consistently in the same way. This makes pronouncing, spelling and reading Spanish very easy by comparison with English.

Some of our students learn Spanish for family reasons or purely for enjoyment, while many have a strong interest in travel. Whether you wish to travel to Latin America or to Spain , our teachers will cater to your needs.

At Lyceum, Spanish is taught using the communicative method, meaning that there is a very strong focus on the spoken language as it is used in practical everyday situations.

After 60 hours of small group tuition (levels 1-4) you will be able to handle the following:

• Social interaction
• Planning outings
• Getting about town
• Shopping and other transactions, such as the bank and post office
• Booking accommodation and talking about the home

This level is recommended to people who wish to travel to a Spanish-speaking country, and also for those who plan to use Spanish with their family and friends here in Melbourne.

As part of your course, our teachers will encourage you to seek out the Spanish speaking community in Melbourne, in order to help you practice your speaking and listening skills. Melbourne has a large population of Spanish speakers, which affords you great opportunities to practice the language and learn about the culture.
Teachers will give you information about the Spanish radio and television programmes, and newspapers available in Melbourne, and also about Spanish festivals & events in Melbourne.

As a group you will pool information about the best Melbourne Spanish restaurants, Spanish food stores, bookshops and Spanish clubs to help you further immerse yourself in the culture. With Lyceum's help, groups often plan outings together.

After a total of 120 hours, you will be conversing fluently, with an advanced use of grammatical structures and a large body of vocabulary.

Spanish is spoken widely throughout the world. You should get many opportunities to enjoy using the language.

Each level of study at Lyceum corresponds to 15 hours of adult tuition, or twelve to eighteen months at high school. Check our course guide to see which level would suit you best, then call us to discuss and confirm.

 

Spanish Language Course - Level 1

Learn Spanish (Lessons from Dos Mundos chapters A-C)

Content of Classes:

• The alphabet and how to pronounce Spanish sounds
• Greetings such as 'How are you' and 'Good afternoon'
• Introducing yourself and other people giving your name, nationality and occupation
• The numbers up to 100. Putting them into practice by asking each other for:
  Telephone numbers
  Addresses
  Age
  
• How to describe people's personal characteristics using adjectives
• such as 'enthusiastic', 'fun', 'pleasant', 'hard-working' etc.
• Vocabulary: Clothing and the colours
• Addressing others (polite and informal)
• Questioning/expressing existence. For example, 'Is there a railway station nearby?' 'Yes, there is one about 400m away.'
• Expressing possession using 'mine', 'yours', 'his' etc.
• How to form the plural of nouns
• The teacher, the teachers = el profesor, los profesores
• Present tense of regular verbs
• Vocabulary: Countries, nationalities, languages, cities

See timetable for courses at:

Kew, Fitzroy, Malvern, Melbourne City (Flinders Lane)

Spanish Language Course - Level 2

Learn Spanish (Lessons from Dos Mundos chapters 1-2)

Content of Classes:

• The numbers greater than 100. Putting them into practice:
• Expressing years, for example 'I was born in 1970'
• How to tell the time
• Days of the week, months, dates
• Revision of present tense of regular verbs
• How to formulate questions: 'which' 'how' 'why' 'what'...
• Expressing likes and dislikes, preferences and desires
• Reading practice: Your horoscope
• Vocabulary: Sports, leisure activities and games
• Describing the weather
• The future tense. Putting it into practice:
• Listening to the weather forecast ('Tomorrow it will be hot')
• Asking each other what you will do on the weekend
• Asking about someone's future plans
• Reading a Spanish TV guide
• Ordinal numbers; i.e. how to say 'first', 'second', 'third', 'fourth', 'fifth' etc.

See timetable for courses at:

Kew, Fitzroy, Malvern, Melbourne City (Flinders Lane)

Spanish Language Course - Level 3

Learn Spanish (Lessons from Dos Mundos chapters 3-4)

Content of Classes:

• Introducing irregular verbs
• Stating a place of origin, ie 'I am from Australia'
• The present progressive: How to refer to actions in progress, like 'I am walking to school.'
• Cultural aspects: The different Hispanic countries and nationalities
• Getting around town: the library, post office, laundromat, bakery...
• Giving and understanding directions:
  To the right/left
  Around
  Between
  Close to...
• Learning the present tense of irregular verbs
• Telling others about your daily routine
• Describing how someone is feeling: happy, sad, tired etc.
• Reading poetry
• Vocabulary: Holidays, festivals and celebrations

See timetable for courses at:

Kew, Fitzroy, Malvern, Melbourne City (Flinders Lane)

Spanish Language Course - Level 4

Learn Spanish (Lessons from Dos Mundos chapters 5-6)

Content of Classes:

• Discussion of your hobbies and skills
• Use of the comparative: for example, 'Tomorrow will be warmer than today' or,
• 'Swimming is less tiring than skiing'
• Use of the superlative: for example, 'This restaurant is the cheapest'
• or, 'This is the best option'
• The past tense of regular verbs. Putting it into practice:
• How was your weekend?
• What did you do over the holidays?
• When did you go to Mexico?
• Expressing obligation:
• for example, 'I have to work late tonight' or 'She ought to think about it carefully'
• Vocabulary: Households - rooms, furniture and electrical appliances, the local area
• Roleplay: househunting

See timetable for courses at:

Kew, Fitzroy, Malvern, Melbourne City (Flinders Lane)

Spanish Language Course - Level 5

Learn Spanish (Lessons from Dos Mundos chapters 7-8)

Content of Classes:

• Vocabulary: Nature and the environment
• Cultural readings: The Inca Trail
• Further revision of the past tense
• The past tense of irregular verbs
• Hispanic foods and diet
• Dinner at home: table settings, utensils
• Shopping at the supermarket
• Expression of quantities like litres, grams and kilos
• Revision of preferences, likes and dislikes
• Direct object pronouns:
  For example: '¿La ensalada? Ella no la come nunca.'
  'Salad? She never eats it.'
• Expressing 'ago':
  Hace cinco minutos = five minutes ago
  Hace dos anos = two years ago
  
• Double negatives. In Spanish, it is necessary to say 'I haven't done nothing'

See timetable for courses at:

Kew, Fitzroy, Malvern, Melbourne City (Flinders Lane)

Spanish Language Course - Level 6

Learn Spanish (Lessons from Dos Mundos chapters 9-10)

Content of Classes:

• Describing family relationships, including mother-in-law, stepfather, cousin, niece...
• Reflexive verbs. These are actions which you do to yourself, for example:
  to enjoy yourself, to get (yourself) up, to dress (yourself), to comb your hair...
• The imperfect tense, which is used to describe habitual actions. For example:
  'I used to go swimming every day.'
• Adverbs, such as 'rapidly', 'truly', 'regularly': rapidamente, sinceramente, regularmente
• Express surprise, disgust, or annoyance using exclamative sentences
• Describing actions using adverbs
• Reading about recent events: Hurricane Mitch, 1998 in Central America
• Describing the weather
• Por and para: these indicate movement through/along a place, or toward a destination, respectively
• The imperative: Giving instructions, orders or making suggestions.
• Road signs, means of transport

See timetable for courses at:

Kew, Fitzroy, Malvern, Melbourne City (Flinders Lane)

Spanish Language Course - Lower Intermediate

Learn Spanish (Lessons from Dos Mundos chapters 11-13)
(20 week course)

Content of Classes:

• Vocabulary: Tourism and travel
• Discussing tourist packages which include accommodation, breakfast and airport transfers
• Sightseeing
• Expressing changes in state eg. 'I became...' 'She got...'
• Revising the imperative:
  oleplay - one person asks for directions, and the other uses the imperative to instruct them on where to go
• Using the present subjunctive to soften commands
• Vocabulary: The human body, illnesses, accidents and treatments
• Narrating accidents or unplanned occurrences: the use of se + verb
• Roleplay: At the doctor's
• Revision of the past tense:
• Narrating past experiences
• Vocabulary: Materials, clothing, other objects
• Shopping and bargaining:
• Exchanging items
• Prices
• Currencies in the different Hispanic countries
• Buying real estate
• Elements from the 'Upper Intermediate and Advanced' outline

See timetable for courses at:

Kew, Fitzroy, Malvern, Melbourne City (Flinders Lane)

Spanish Language Course - Intermediate

Learn Spanish (Lessons from Dos Mundos chapters 14-16)
(20 week course)

Content of Classes:

• Uses of the imperative: How to say 'Let/Have someone else do it!'
• Expressing reciprocal actions: 'They phone each other', 'We help each other'
• Vocabulary: Marriage, relationships
• Discussing social and political problems in Australia, Hispanic countries and around the globe
• Expressing opinions
• The future tense. Putting it into practice by:
  Listening to weather forecasts
  Asking what you will do on the holidays
• The conditional tense
• More uses of the subjunctive - Hypothesising:
  'If there were less work, fewer workers would cross the border illegally'
  'Si hubiera menos trabajo, los trabajadores sin documentos no cruzarian la frontera.'
• The past subjunctive: Hypothesising about the past
• Elements from the 'Upper Intermediate and Advanced' outline

See timetable for courses at:

Kew, Fitzroy, Malvern, Melbourne City (Flinders Lane)

Spanish Language Course - Upper Intermediate and Advanced

Content of Classes:

At these levels, teachers are free to bring in their own materials to stimulate conversation in class. Each teacher will have their own creative ideas, however here is a sample of what a typical class might include:

Role Plays

This is a common technique used by teachers to place topics in a realistic setting. For example: Students might study vocabulary related to renting a house. Following this, the teacher would give each person a role (such as real estate agent, landlord, share-house tenants) and ask them to enact a hypothetical situation.

Literature

A short story or poem is read by the class. Themes, characters and related issues are discussed in pairs and then shared with the other students.

News and current affairs

Students watch parts of the news in Spanish. The class is then split into pairs, and each student prepares a set of questions to ask their partner.

Conversations are initiated centering on economic, political and social situations around the globe.

Debates

The class is split into those 'for' and 'against' and given 10 minutes to prepare an argument. The topic may either be serious and controversial, or comical.

Slides

The teacher brings in slides or photographs of Hispanic countries and describes them to the class. Students may also bring in their own materials and give a presentation.

Cultural themes

Traditions such as Carnevale, Valentine's Day, Christmas, and other festival celebrations are discussed and explored.

Brief revision of grammar topics as requested by students

See timetable for courses at:

Kew, Fitzroy, Malvern, Melbourne City (Flinders Lane)

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