Spanish Language Course

The Spanish language program at King's Way is designed to provide interactive opportunities to learn and practice the Spanish language. Just as children learn to speak by listening, mimicking sounds and even making mistakes, we help you "jump right in" and start learning through intensive conversation classes with native speakers. Although our emphasis is on actually learning to speak Spanish, our program also includes grammar and phonetics classes, which are carefully coordinated with the material being learned in the conversation classes. The course includes a careful balance of all four of the basic language skills of understanding, speaking, reading and writing.

The two main components of the Spanish course, conversation and grammar, are both presented in six coordinated levels. Each level lasts for six weeks and ends with a comprehensive oral and written test designed to help our staff determine how well each student has mastered the material for that particular level. Students only progress to the next level as they successfully complete the previous one. Most students find they can learn all the material quite well in a level within the allotted six-week period in order to move on to complete the entire course in two full semesters. Occasionally, however, a student may not grasp all the concepts in that particular level the first time through and will welcome the opportunity to revisit it before moving on. Each student is unique, and everyone learns in different ways and at different rates. Our program takes these differences into account as we guide you through the course. Graduation is based upon the successful completion of all six levels.

The following section describes the material that will be introduced to you level by level in the all-Spanish conversation classes, which are designed to help you learn to actually speak the language. Then in the grammar classes the same concepts will be explained in English at least at first. In conversation class you learn how to speak. In grammar you learn why you say what you say. The study of grammar also provides an opportunity to acquire many valuable language-learning tools for future study as the student moves forward in preparation for cross-cultural service.

SPANISH CONVERSATION & GRAMMAR

• LEVEL 1 - In Level 1 students begin to learn such basics as how to greet others and tell them good-bye. They also learn about subject pronouns, how to give their age and name and talk about where they and others are from. Other topics include gender and number of nouns and adjectives, agreement of adjectives, expressing likes and dislikes, showing possession, stating nationalities and being introduced to the all-important concept of verb conjugation. Before the level ends the present tense of regular verbs in the indicative mood along with the present progressive form are clearly explained. Students also learn a number of useful phrases for expressing themselves and understanding what is taking place in the classroom. The Spanish-speaking countries of the world are presented along with each nation's capital city, and the Spanish alphabet is introduced along with the basic rules of accentuation. From the very beginning the Spanish sound system is emphasized, and students begin to familiarize themselves with the first five hundred words of the nearly 2,500 words they will be introduced to throughout all six levels.
  
  
• LEVEL 2 - Level 2 continues to develop the extremely important topic of the Spanish verb structure with the introduction of the preterit tense, one of two past tenses in Spanish in the indicative mood. In this level students are also introduced to the concept of reflexive verbs and the personal a along with demonstrative pronouns and adjectives. The verbs saber and conocer are also introduced to help students begin discerning the difference between talking about who you know and what you know. Indirect objects and indirect object pronouns are carefully analyzed along with common time expressions and prepositions, which are relationship words. This level also begins the introduction of two common prepositions that cause English speakers lots of headaches: por and para. The mystery becomes clear once the student grasps the fact that one of the words communicates destination while the other speaks of purpose. English speakers also use the verb to be to actually speak of a couple of quite different concepts while Spanish simplifies the matter by actually utilizing two separate words. The use of these two verbs ser and estar are introduced and closely studied in Level 2. The irregular preterit forms of ir, ser and hacer are also explored.
  
• LEVEL 3 - Level 3 continues taking us further into the verb structure of the language by introducing students to more irregular verbs in the preterit tense as well as some of the stem-changing verbs. More insight into time expressions using the verb hacer are studied in this level and the concept of direct objects is explained along with how to form and use direct object pronouns in Spanish. In this level students are taught how to include direct and indirect object pronouns in a single sentence. Another major step forward is taken in Level 3 as well when students are introduced to the other past tense, the imperfect. It is always exciting to see our students begin to really get a hold of the Spanish-speaker's view point of the past and begin to accurately use both the preterit and the imperfect tense in the same sentence. Learning to avoid redundancies and using the past participle as an adjective are also presented in this level. At this point in the course students will have been introduced to well over 1,000 words including verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjective, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.
  
• LEVEL 4 - A whole new world of more advanced Spanish concepts opens to Level 4 students as they begin to explore the Spanish-speaker's world of talking about things that are not yet reality in the speaker's mind by utilizing the subjunctive mood. With the subjunctive mood we can talk about things that are yet to come as well as form indirect commands, give advice and express hope, doubt, fear, strong emotions and desires. More development of the verb structure is introduced as well in Level 4 with the study of the present subjunctive tense. A thorough presentation of the imperative mood, or command forms, is also included in this level, and students learn to make comparisons of equality and inequality.
  
• LEVEL 5 - In Level 5 the student returns to the preterit and imperfect tenses in order to take them to a deeper mastery of the two simple past tenses in Spanish. Greater insight into the use of these two viewpoints of the past, which all Spanish-speakers understand perfectly, is gained through the introduction of additional materials and both written and oral practice. In this level students learn how to express happenings that were unintentional, and another way to speak of past experiences is introduced with the addition of the present perfect tense. A foundation of how perfect tenses are formed and used is laid in Level 5 in preparation for the introduction of the remaining perfect tenses both in the indicative and subjunctive moods throughout the remainder of the course. The two verbs pedir and preguntar, which mean to ask for information and to ask a question respectively, are introduced, and the two different meanings are clearly explained. The level concludes with studies on such topics as the long and short forms of possessive adjectives, using negatives in sentences, nominalizations, making suggestions, relative pronouns, relative pronouns and the pluperfect tense.
  
• LEVEL 6 - In Level 6 all the rest of the Spanish tenses are presented including the future tense, the conditional tense, the imperfect subjunctive and all the rest of the perfect tenses in both the indicative and subjunctive moods, along with a look at all the progressive forms. Expressing probability in the present with the future tense and probability in the past using the conditional are also explored as well as learning how to express hypothetical actions. Further insights into the use of the subjunctive in adjective and adverbial clauses are also now considered as well as how the subjunctive mood is used to express feelings, doubts and desires in the past. Further practice in understanding how to use the prepositions por and para along with reciprocal actions and the use of the subjunctive in contrary to fact clauses are also explored.

SPANISH PHONETICS

• Spanish Phonetics is a course designed to introduce students to the various components that make up the sound system of the Spanish language. Such topics as the formation of vowels and consonants, points of articulation, accentuation and intonation are studied. The phonetics course is also coordinated with the rest of the school's Spanish language program in order to help students relate what they are learning in Phonetics with what is being presented in the other areas of the program. The sound system of Spanish is also contrasted with the sounds of English, and areas of weakness for native English speakers are also explored in order to help our students move away from having a foreign accent.

SPANISH FOR MINISTRY

• Most of the students who come to King's Way do so because of a calling and desire to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ among Spanish-speaking people. Spanish for Ministry is a class designed to help prepare our students for such ministry. In this class students will practice their reading skills by reading material directly from various versions of the Bible in Spanish with an emphasis on the 1960 edition of the Reina-Valera Bible, the most widely used version in Latin America. They will also become familiar with numerous key passages Scripture along with the vocabulary needed for talking about biblical topics. A number of key Bible verses will also be memorized and recited in class. Students will also have the opportunity to prepare and present testimonies and sermons in Spanish within the class setting.
  

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