Spanish - GCSE
What will I study in Spanish?
The GCSE covers the following areas:
Out and about: Visitor information, weather, local amenities, accommodation, public transport, directions. Customer service and transactions. Cafés and restaurants, shops, and dealing with problems.
Personal information: General interests, leisure activities, family and friends, lifestyle choices such as healthy eating and exercise.
Future plans, education and work: Basic internet terminology, simple job advertisements, job applications and CVs, school and college, work and work experience.
How will I be assessed?
Four different skills are assessed: listening, reading, speaking and writing.
In the listening test, you will answer questions on recorded material from different topic areas. In the reading test, you will answer questions about short texts on different topics: for example text messages, advertisements and emails. The speaking and writing evaluation are internally assessed under controlled conditions. For the oral, students will be assessed on two speaking activities such as a presentation with discussion following an open interaction or a picture-based free-flowing discussion. For the writing section, you must complete two separate writing tasks and should write around 200 words in each of the two tasks.
Do I need to have studied Spanish before?
Although it would be advantageous to have some knowledge of Spanish already this is not a prerequisite for the course and most students are complete beginners.
Who will teach me?
Maricarmen Perez has a BSc (Hons) degree from the University of Salamanca and trained as a teacher in Spain. She is an enthusiastic and experienced language tutor at GCSE and A level.
Which subjects complement Spanish?
Other modern or historical languages, History, Geography and English Literature are all well-suited to Spanish.
Which careers can Spanish lead to?
People with language skills are highly thought by employers. Taking GCSE Spanish means you will be able to study AS and A2 Spanish, add an extra dimension to your personal skills profile which will impress anyone who reads your CV, be in a stronger position to get a job in companies with international links and improve employability if you would like to work abroad.