Home Page News   St Benildus College "THE BEST EDUCATION MONEY CAN'T BUY" Irish Independent   Languages  2009/2010 < back   Spanish 2009/2010 There are two full-time teachers in the Spanish Department who aim to impart an enthusiasm for the language and all things Spanish. Junior Certificate students have four class periods per week; all are classes of mixed ability and are aimed at the Higher Level Junior Certificate paper which the vast majority of students sit. For the last several years the annual 1st year school trip has been to Barcelona which has helped in fostering an interest in Spanish culture. By the time they sit the Junior Certificate examination, the boys should be able to communicate at a level which would allow them to acquire necessary information and which would enable them to socialise in Spanish at a basic level. They should progress in all aspects of the language, and in the process develop a knowledge of Spain and an interest in Spanish culture as well as its influence in other parts of the world. The aim of the Transition Year Programme in Spanish, while building on the foundations of grammar and oral work that have been laid down during the Junior Cycle, is to increase the students’ awareness of the breadth of Spanish culture, and to reveal the diversity and richness of the country. This is done through reading, listening, classroom discussion and visual media. At Senior Cycle level there are five class periods per week. At the end of the Cycle we expect students to have achieved a proficiency in listening, speaking, reading and writing Spanish, which would allow them to perform to the best of their ability in the Leaving Certificate. While the honing of reading comprehension and written expression skills continues, an increased emphasis is placed on listening comprehension and oral work since 45% of the total marks in the Leaving Certificate exam are allocated to these two sections. In the Junior Cycle the ‘Primer Paso’ text books are used in addition to CDs, computer-based activities and language games. At Leaving Certificate level we use ‘La Pluma’ and ‘El Espanol Bien Hablado’ as well as a basic grammar book and supplementary materials from other sources. New computer software, comprising programmes for the three continental languages, was introduced to the school in September 2008 and this has proved to be a very valuable teaching resource for all levels. Homework Policy and Assessment The Spanish Department has agreed a Homework Policy which is: Homework should be given every night, including at week-ends, and should be corrected the following day.  In addition, regular tests should be given to 1st, 2nd and 3rd years and efforts should be made to take copies up for correction from all classes one day a week.  The setting of regular tests is considered desirable.  These should be relatively simple tests where even the weaker students should be able to score highly.  Only the top scores are read out in class and a small prize for the highest scoring students is given at Christmas and Summer.  This approach has been found satisfactory for vocabulary learning and verbs as well as short phrases. Students in 1ST, 2ND and 5TH years sit a common exam at Christmas and in June.  This exam includes written and aural assessment.  The teachers have discussed the possibility of introducing a short oral exam and it is hoped to introduce this for the coming Christmas exam on a trial basis for 1st years.  A provisional date for the second week in December is being considered.  If it is found to be satisfactory, an oral assessment will form part of the Summer exam for 1st and 2nd years. 3rd and 6th year students sit the Mock exam in the Spring.  A mock oral examination is organised for the 6th year students in addition to the written and aural exam.  Records are kept by Year Heads and by the school of results of Christmas and Summer exams.  Class teachers keep records of both school exams and of regular class exams.  Liaising re Student Care Resources The school Principal has made it clear to all Spanish teachers that any books or other resources that are requested by teachers will be provided when possible.  Between the books that are provided by the school and the teachers’ personal reference books we have built up quite a range during the last four years.  These resources are regularly used for additional material in class.  This additional material was found to be very necessary for second and third years as until this year there was no core Spanish text book written with the Junior Cert in mind.  While the Arriba series was chosen as the best available, we do not find Arriba 2 entirely satisfactory and consequently augment it with a range of other material.  We look forward to changing next year to Primer Paso for Junior Cert level.  This year we have started working with Mirador in 2nd year and find it very useful.  Context On entry all students are given the option of studying French, German or Spanish.  Over the last number of years there has been a huge increase in the numbers of students wishing to study Spanish.  Four years ago there were 32 students in the first year class (current TY/5th year) and three years ago it was found necessary to have a second Spanish class in 1st year. All classes are of mixed ability.  It is found that the range of abilities is very broad.  It is school practice to encourage weaker students to study Spanish as it is viewed as being easier than French or German at Junior Cert level.  This results in a high proportion of Learning Support students taking the subject.  Some of the weaker students are encouraged by their ability to be understood when they attempt to communicate and their relative ability at listening comprehension.  These students are strongly encouraged to focus on listening comprehension and many would have been provided with tapes/CDs by the teacher to this end (the text books in use in 1st, 2nd and 3rd year do not come with a CD for student use outside the classroom).  At senior level the more able students are provided with and encouraged to read Spanish short stories (with parallel English text). JUNIOR CYCLE SPANISH SENIOR CYCLE SPANISH Aims Our primary aim is to foster communicative skills in Spanish – spoken, written and aural.  Language Awareness To make students aware of how the language works – aim to achieve grammatical accuracy, broaden the vocabulary and develop an awareness of the correct meaning and use of words in order to communicate effectively. Cultural Awareness   Objectives By the end of the senior cycle students should have covered all of the themes below and have succeeded in achieving their potential in either the ordinary or higher level Leaving Certificate exam.  In addition, it is hoped that sufficient enthusiasm can be imparted for the language and culture to encourage students to pursue the language at a higher level.  Of the 17 students in last year’s Leaving Cert class 5 are studying Spanish at third level. Themes to be Covered Are: Self, family and social circle Giving personal information Discussing home and relationships Occupations of family members Discussing school and studies Housework Describing neighbourhood, city, country Week-end activities School Subjects Teachers Irish/Spanish college School life – friends, study pressure Discussing future plans Talking about future plans Making arrangements Travel and transport Asking and giving directions Making plane/train/etc. reservations Discussing itineraries Making general enquiries Shopping Changing money/methods of payment Ordering by phone Commenting on cost Quality of goods and services Spare Time Sport – general vocabulary, games played, advantages of being active, sport in school Interests – cinema, TV, reading, music, computers, theatre Emergencies Talking about an accident/breakdown/theft, etc. Asking for help Calling the police, emergency services, etc. Action required Ask permission to do something Commands in the positive and negative Giving advice Making suggestions Expressing feelings or attitudes Hope , surprise, satisfaction, disappointment, liking/disliking, belief/disbelief, certainty/uncertainty, etc Managing a conversation Starting a conversation Indicating understanding/misunderstanding Asking for repetition/clarification Engaging in discussion Giving opinions Acknowledging truth/untruth of a statement Contradicting Taking sides in an argument Concluding discussion Notes/Messages Passing on a message Stating who left message and its urgency/importance Dealing with answering machine messages Holiday plans Destinations Tourism in Spain/Ireland Activities on holiday How to get there, where to stay Weather and Climate Talking about weather in a particular country or locality Understanding and discussing weather forecasts Global warming and climate related issues Language Awareness Providing aids in correctly interpreting written text.  Identifying writer’s/speaker’s tone on basis of grammar, intonation and punctuation. Identifying attitudes (agreeing, disagreeing, supportive, critical, etc.) by the language used. Using reference material – consulting text/dictionary relating to the grammar and vocabulary used in text Cultural Awareness Everyday life – different daily routine, food, drink, leisure, sleep patterns, school subjects, neighbourhood facilities etc Customs and traditions Arts – art, architecture, literature, cinema Media, newspapers, magazines Differences between Spain and Ireland Similarities between Spain and Ireland Additional Issues Addressed Modern Society – generation conflict Environment – global warming Homelessness Bullying Immigration Teenage culture Alcohol Drugs Health and healthy lifestyle Communication – mobile phones Equality and women’s roles Violence and crime Energy and recycling War and terrorism All classes are of mixed ability.  While it is desirable to have a higher and ordinary level class for the senior cycle this has not been possible to date since there has been only one Spanish class per year up until three years ago.  It is hoped that future senior cycle classes will be divided into higher and ordinary levels.  What is set out above is the objective – bearing in mind the huge difference in ability in the current classes there will, of necessity, be quite a divergence in how the material is assimilated by individual students.  The challenge is to adopt a teaching approach, and provide appropriate material, which addresses the different levels of learning and learning experiences.     Teaching All 5th and 6th year students have five periods of either 40 or 45 minutes per week.  Transition Year students have 3 periods.  All classes in the senior cycle aim to cover the higher level curriculum.  In consultation with the Career Guidance teacher, students are advised whether to take the higher level paper.  This decision is deferred for as long as possible as it had been the experience that when students discover the difference in standard between the higher and ordinary level those taking the ordinary level tend to take a far more relaxed attitude than is desirable.  In relation to the oral exam the ability to conduct a general conversation without the appearance of rote learning is stressed.  The role-plays are practised frequently and the importance of listening to the El Espanol Bien Hablado CD on a regular basis is emphasised. TRANSITION YEAR The over-riding aims the TY programme are to focus on aspects of Spanish culture as well as grammar.  One of the three classes per week is allocated to Spanish culture using different media – text, video, music, etc.  One class is devoted to grammar and the remaining one to listening comprehension. Text book used for TY !Viva La Gramatica!              The National Curriculum is followed in all classes with the aim of achieving a level of comfort in spoken and written Spanish which will enable  Over the past several years St Benildus has participated in a Spanish Student Programme in co-operation with St. Rafaela’s.  This involves a number of Spanish students attending St. Benildus for the first term, arriving during the second week in September and remaining until the start of the Christmas exams in December.  This programme has proved very beneficial both from the school’s perspective and that of the students.  The Spanish boys have been a positive addition to the school community and we have always had very complimentary feed-back from the boys and their parents about their experience at St. Benildus.  We have eight boys attending this year. We currently have 142 boys studying Spanish in the school which indicates clearly that the decision to expand our Continental Languages Department to include Spanish was well advised. Aims Our primary aim is to foster communicative skills in Spanish – spoken, written and aural.  Language Awareness To make students aware of how the language works – aim to achieve grammatical accuracy, broaden the vocabulary and develop an awareness of the correct meaning and use of words in order to communicate effectively. Cultural Awareness To develop cultural awareness – to make students aware of the cultural, social and political differences between Spain and Ireland.  The aim is to augment  the work done at Junior Cert level to foster student’s interest and appreciation for all things Spanish through reading , listening, classroom discussion and, through visual media material, the latter principally in Transition Year.   Objectives By the end of the senior cycle students should have covered all of the following themes and succeed in achieving their potential in either the ordinary or higher level Leaving Certificate exam.  In addition it is hoped that sufficient enthusiasm can be imparted for the language and culture to encourage students to pursue the language at a higher level. Three of the 17 students in last year’s Leaving Cert class are studying Spanish at third level – 2 at UCD and 1 at DIT. Themes to be covered are: Self, family and social circle Giving personal information Discussing home and relationships Occupations of family members Discussing school and studies Housework Describing neighbourhood, city country Week-end activities School Subjects Teachers Irish/Spanish college School life – friends, study pressure Discussing future plans Making arrangements Talking about future plans Travel and Transport Asking and giving directions Making plane/train etc. reservations Discussing itineraries Making general enquiries Shopping Changing money/methods of payment Ordering by phone Commenting on cost Quality of goods and services Spare Time Sport – general vocabulary, games played, advantages of being active, sport in school Interests – cinema, TV, reading, music, computers, theatre Emergencies Talking about an accident/breakdown/theft etc Asking for help Calling the police, emergency services etc Action required Ask permission to do something Commands in the positive and negative Giving advice Making suggestions Expressing feelings or attitudes Hope , surprise, satisfaction, disappointment, liking/disliking, belief/disbelief, certainty/uncertainty, etc Managing a conversation Starting a conversation Indicating understanding/misunderstanding Asking for repetition/clarification Engaging in discussion Giving opinions Acknowledging truth/untruth of statement Contradicting Taking sides in argument Concluding discussion Notes/Messages Passing on a message Stating who left message and its urgency/importance Dealing with answering machine messages Holiday plans Destinations Tourism in Spain/Ireland Activities on holiday How to get there, where to stay Weather and Climate Talking about weather in particular country or locality Understanding and discussing weather forecasts Global warming and climate related issues Language Awareness Provide aids in correctly interpreting written text.  Identifying writer’s/ speaker’s tone on basis of grammar, intonation and punctuation. Identifying attitudes (agreeing, disagreeing, supportive, critical etc) by the language used. Use of reference material – consulting text/dictionary relating to the grammar and vocabulary used in text Cultural Awareness Everyday life – different daily routine, food, drink, leisure, sleep patterns, school subjects, neighbourhood facilities etc Customs and traditions Arts – art, architecture, literature, cinema Media, newspapers, magazines Differences between Spain and Ireland Similarities between Spain and Ireland Additional Issues Addressed Modern Society – generation conflict Environment – global warming Homelessness Bullying Immigration Teenage culture Alcohol Drugs Health and healthy lifestyle Communication – mobile phones Equality and woman’s role Violence and crime Energy and recycling War and terrorism All classes are of mixed ability.  While it is desirable to have a higher and ordinary level class for the senior cycle this has not been possible to date since there has been only one Spanish class per year up until three years ago.  It is hoped that future senior cycle classes will be divided into higher and ordinary levels.  What is set out above is the objective – bearing in mind the huge difference in ability in the current classes there will, of necessity, be quite a divergence in how the material is assimilated by individual students.  The challenge is to adopt a teaching approach and provide materials which may have different levels of learning experiences.     Books used at Senior Level Spanish Meta Leaving Certificate Spanish – 6th year only La Pluma Vamos a Escuchar for Leaving Certificate Spanish El Espanol Bien Hablado El Espanol Bien Hablado CD Spanish Leaving Certificate Examination Papers – Higher and Ordinary Level Spanish Dictionary All 5th and 6th year students have fiver periods of either 40 or 45 minutes per week.  Transition Year students have 3 periods.  All classes in the senior cycle aim to cover the higher level curriculum.  In consultation with the Career Guidance teacher students are advised whether to take the higher level paper.  This decision is deferred for as long as possible as it had been the experience that when students discover the difference in standard between the higher and ordinary level those taking the ordinary level tend to relax more than is desirable.  Students in Transition Year do not sit an exam during the year but assessments are carried out throughout the year and furnished to the Transition Year Co-ordinator.  Fifth year students sit a school exam at Christmas and at end-of-year.   This exam includes written and aural assessment. A mock oral examination is organised for the students in addition to the written and aural.  In relation to the oral exam the ability to conduct a general conversation without the appearance of rote learning is stressed.  The role-plays are practised frequently and the importance of listening to the ‘El Espanol Bien Hablado’ CD on a regular basis is emphasised.   The Year Heads for the senior cycle are Mr. Joe Connell (5st yr.) and Mr. Joe Ryan (6th Yr).   It is considered that they do a superb job and relationships between teachers of Spanish and Year Heads are excellent.  SPANISH DEPARTMENT Spanish is the third of our foreign language choices in First Year and is often chosen because of its phonetic nature. The Junior Certificate syllabus is very similar to the French one as the examinations at this level are almost identical.  In the course of the first three years the student of Spanish will learn to understand both oral and written Spanish. She will develop an awareness of the cultural differences between Spain and Ireland as well as other Spanish- speaking areas of the world. The foundations of grammar are laid down in these Junior Certificate years too, so that by the end of Third Year, a student should be able to write letters and complete some written role-plays with ease as well as express herself in simple conversational Spanish. She will not however be required to sit an oral test at this stage. Junior Certificate classes are mixed in ability with the vast majority of our students sitting the Higher Level paper in the examination. We use the ‘Aventura Nueva’ series and supplement our teaching with language games, CDs, films and computer-based activities. We have three class periods in First Year, followed by four in each of Second and Third Year. The Junior Certificate exam, like that of the other Modern Languages, is comprised of three components: Listening (worth 44%) The student is required to extract specific information from a range of recorded material. Responses are to be given in English. Reading (31%) The student is asked to identify and extract specific information from timetables, menus, magazine articles, advertisements and interviews. They are required to demonstrate their understanding by answering in English. Writing (25%). The student must complete written tasks of varying length. She is required to demonstrate the use of an appropriate range of vocabulary, grammatical structures and tenses. Transition Year The activities in Spanish class in Transition Year allow students to consolidate their knowledge of the language, while barcelonafurther increasing their awareness of life in other Spanish-speaking countries. Students benefit from this year free from the constraints of a State examination syllabus to develop their competencies in the language by undertaking project work, reading short stories or magazine articles, watching and discussing Spanish films and enjoying ICT language activities. We usually participate in the annual Inter-Schools Spanish Table Quiz. A 5 day Transition Year trip to either Madrid is organized for all students of Spanish through Apprendre et Vivre in the second term. Students spend 4/5 nights in the home of a Spanish family and spend the day exploring Madrid, and the nearby towns of Toledo and Segovia. All these activities, in addition to a series of Spanish conversation classes throughout the year, ensure that Transition Year students are in a better position to approach the much more demanding Leaving Certificate course.