SUBJECT AIM
Cambridge IGCSE Spanish encourages learners to be confident, responsible and reflective by; using new and familiar structures and vocabulary to communicate with others in everyday situations; seeking opportunities to use and develop their language skills; considering how to communicate different ideas and attitudes innovatively; applying language to a variety of situations engaged and by developing learning strategies which help them to express their ideas and their understanding of other cultures.
WHAT YOU WILL STUDY
The course will cover a wide range of topics in the four key skills of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. The subject content is organised in five broad topic areas:
- Everyday activities
- Personal and social life
- The world around us
- The world of work
- The international world
These provide contexts for the acquisition of vocabulary and the study of grammar and structures. The study of these topic areas enables students to gain an insight into countries and communities where Spanish is spoken.
HOW WILL YOU BE ASSESSED
IGCSE Spanish (grades A*- G) | Paper 1 Listening | Paper 2 Reading | Paper 3 Speaking | Paper 4 Writing |
25% weighting 40 marks 50 min approx.
|
25% weighting 45 marks 1 hour |
25% weighting 40 marks 10 min approx. |
25% weighting 45 marks 1 hour |
WHAT THIS SUBJECT CAN LEAD TO
- Translator, interpreter, blogger, teacher, journalist, reporter, product localisation manager, field researcher, liaison officer, tour guide, podcaster, sales associate, motivational speaker, flight attendant, private tutor…
- Support your appreciation and the importance of Modern Languages in society, employment and study.
Please click on the arrow for a detailed breakdown:
| Unit / Block of work | Key Episodes / Questions | Additional Detail | Colour Code | Length of time. | Possible Symbol? | Learner Attribute(s) |
| UNIT 1: Introducing Myself | Introduce yourself | Present tense -ar -er and -ir | 4 lessons | House | Inquirer Comminicator | |
| 1.1a- Where I live | Describe where you live | Personal pronouns and regular verbs | ||||
| 1.1b- This is my house | Describe your accommodation | Adjectives, pronouns, articles | ||||
| 1.1c- What do you do at home? | Describe what you do in each room | Reflexive verbs | ||||
| 1.1d- Rooms in the House | Describe the rooms of your house | Preposition of place | ||||
| 1.2: My school | How to tell the time | The negative form | 4 lessons | School, book | Thinker Knowledgeable | |
| 1.2a- Timetables and subjects | How to talk about school timetable | The days and the time | ||||
| 1.2b- My school Day | Describe a school day | Prepositions | ||||
| 1.2c- My school | Describe your school in details | Irregular verbs of present tense | ||||
| 1.2d- Life in a Spanish secondary school | Compare British / Spanish school systems | Time expressions | ||||
| 1.3: My eating habits | Describe what you eat at breakfast, lunch & dinner | Near future tense | 4 lessons | Food | Open-minded | |
| 1.3a- My culinary tastes | Talk about different Spanish dishes | Adjectives and superlatives | ||||
| 1.3b- Cultural dishes | Name what makes a balanced meal | Possessive adjectives | ||||
| 1.3c- Balanced meals | Talk about the food you like | Past perfect tense | ||||
| 1.4: My body and my health | Parts of the body | Estar and Haber | 4 lessons | First Aid symbol | Communicator | |
| 1.4a- I am hurt | Say what hurts you | Expressions to use when at the clinic | ||||
| 1.4b- At the hospital | Explain your symptoms | Conjunctions | ||||
| 1.4c- How to keep healthy | Explain how you keep fit and healthy | Interrogatives | ||||
| 1.4d- A healthy lifestyle | Explain how to follow a healthy lifestyle | Adverbs -mente and frequency adverbs | ||||
| UNIT 2: My family, my friends, at home & abroad | Describe your family in details | Sentence agreement | 4 lessons | Family tree | Caring | |
| 2.1a- My familly | Physical desciption | Serand estar – to be | ||||
| 2.1b- Physical Descriptions | Describe people’s personality | Possessive adjectives | ||||
| 2.1c- Personality | Describe family relationships | Participles as an adjective | ||||
| 2.1d- Relationships | Reflexive verbs and emphatic pronouns | |||||
| 2.2: Life at home | What are your hobbies? | Prepositions | 4 lessons | Board game | Balanced | |
| 2.2a- At home hobbies | Describe what you do to relax at home | Opinion followed by an infinitive | ||||
| 2.2b- Daily routine | Describe chores | Reflexive verbs | ||||
| 2.2c- House chores | Describe visits and visitors | estar + gerund | ||||
| 2.3: Leisure entertainment & invitations | Outdoor activities with friends | Formation of adverbs | 4 lessons | Invitation | Reflective | |
| 2.3a- My free time outdoors | Describe your hobbies | Near future | ||||
| 2.3b- Do you want to go out? | Describe your activities | Verbs with sports | ||||
| 2.3c – An amazing week | Talking about past activities | Preterite tense with regular verbs | ||||
| 2.4: Eating out | Spanish restaurants | Restaurant expressions | 4 lessons | Fork, Knife and a dish | Communicator | |
| 2.4a- Waiter! | Order what you want in a cafe / restaurant | Complex adjectives | ||||
| 2.4b- Dinner at the restaurant | Learn how to order food in a restaurant | Superlatives | ||||
| 2.4c- Today we are eating out! | Describe different cuisines | Comparatives | ||||
| 2.5: Special occasions | Describe a special ocassion | Preterite tense with regular verbs | 4 lessons | Party hat | Risk-taker | |
| 2.5a- Celebration days | Invite to a party | Past tense markers | ||||
| 2.5b- Celebrating with friends | Describe a party between friends | Past tense of the irregular verbs | ||||
| 2.5c- A special occasion | Describe an event | Sentence agreement | ||||
| 2.6: Going on holidays | Destinations | Adverbs of time and place | 4 lessons | Passport | Open-minded | |
| 2.6a- What type of holiday? | Describe different types of holidays | Future tense | ||||
| 2.6b- Researching holidays | Explain what you do during the holidays | Direct object pronouns | ||||
| 2.6c- Holiday destinations | Describe your future holidays | Near future vs simple future tense | ||||
| 2.7: Friends & family abroad | Describe people living abroad | Adverbs of time and place | 4 lessons | Family and plane | Risk-taker | |
| 2.7a- Visiting my family abroad | Describe a visit to your family living abroad | tú vs usted | ||||
| 2.7b- How will we stay in contact? | Describe what you did during the visit | Irregular verbs of present tense | ||||
| 2.7c- Preparing a trip | Keeping in contact with family | Subjunctive + future | ||||
| UNIT 3: Home town and geographical surroundings | Leisure in town and countryside | Prepositions | 4 lessons | Town | Knowledgeable | |
| 3.1a- What do we have where we live | Describe the buildings and facilities in town | Present perfect tense | ||||
| 3.1b- Town vs countryside | Describe different places | Comparative expressions | ||||
| 3.1c- Pros and cons of town and countryside | Advantages and inconvenients in town and countryside | Conjunctions | ||||
| 3.2: Shopping | Going, buying and paying at the shops | Quantity expressions | 4 lessons | Shopping bag | Communicator | |
| 3.2a- What do we buy? | Describe what you buy at the supermarket | Preterite tense with irregular verbs | ||||
| 3.2b- Let’s go shopping | Describe what you would like to buy | Demonstrative adjectives | ||||
| 3.2c- Let’s buy gifts | Giving opinion on clothes | Indirect object pronouns | ||||
| 3.2d- Does it fit me? | Question words | |||||
| 3.3: Public services | Change or withdraw money from the bank | Indefinite pronouns | 4 lessons | Bank | Reflective | |
| 3.3a- Let’s talk money | Describe means of communication | Verbs to be “ser” and ” estar” | ||||
| 3.3b- Let’s keep in touch! | Explain to security your lost item | Relative pronouns | ||||
| 3.3c- I lost my camera! | DOP / IOP | |||||
| 3.4: Natural environment | How to take care of the environment | Conjunctions | 4 lessons | Globe | Thinker Principled | |
| 3.4a- The environment and I | Describe how you improve your environment | Indefinite adjectives | ||||
| 3.4b- We love national parks | Describe the role and importance of national parks | Relative pronouns | ||||
| 3.4c- Our environment is in danger | Understand the issues and find some solutions | Expressions | ||||
| 3.5: The weather | Describe the weather | Cardinal directions | 4 lessons | Rainbow | Principled Reflective | |
| 3.5a- What the weather like? | Describe weather forecast | Impersonal expressions | ||||
| 3.5b- Weather forecast | Describe the consequences of the climate changes | Imperfect tense | ||||
| 3.5c- Climate changes | Say what weather you like | Opinions | ||||
| 3.6: Finding your way | Understand the given information | Distances and numerical approximations | 4 lessons | Road | Communicator | |
| 3.6a- How do we go to…? | Explain where buildings are situated | Formal and informal constructions | ||||
| 3.6b- A trip to Caracas | Understand more complex instructions | Ordinal numbers | ||||
| 3.6c- Could you explain precisely? | Give directions | Prepositions after the infinitive | ||||
| 3.7: Travel and transport | Describe the different means of transportation | Prepositions of time and place | 4 lessons | Train, metro, bus | Inquirer | |
| 3.7a- Train, metro or bus? | Describe advantages and disadvantages of means of transportation | Prepositional pronouns | ||||
| 3.7b- Going on foot or by bus? | Negatives | |||||
| 3.7c- Urban transportations | Describe your way in town | Tense markers |
| Unit / Block of work | Key Episodes / Questions | Additional Detail | Length of time. | Possible Symbol? | Learner Attribute(s) |
| UNIT 4: Studying and working | The Spanish secondary school system | Negation | 4 lessons | School | Inquirer |
| 4.1a- Spanish schools | High School | Interrogative adjectives and pronouns | Communicator | ||
| 4.1b- The Spanish secondary system | Sixth Form | Cardinal numbers | |||
| 4.1c- Memories from Primary school | Describing your Primary school | The imperfect tense vs preterite | |||
| Teachers, students and facilities | Possessive pronouns | ||||
| 4.2: Further Education and training | Describing what you want to do after high school | Disjoint pronouns | 4 lessons | Degree | Balanced |
| 4.2a- Options after high school | Describing future academic plans | The conditional tense | Thinker | ||
| 4.2b- My future plans | Spanish University system and degrees | Present subjunctive + future tense | |||
| 4.3: Future career plans | Talking about different jobs | Qué and quién preceded by prepositions | 4 lessons | Job | Risk taker |
| 4.3a- Jobs | How to choose the right job? | Caring | |||
| 4.3b- My future job | Pros and cons of jobs | The conditional tense | |||
| 4.4: Employement | Taking a gap year | Relative pronouns | 4 lessons | Two people shaking hands | Open-minded |
| 4.4a- My gap year | Part-time jobs | Time phrases | Knowledgeable | ||
| 4.4b- Applying for a job | Writing a cover letter | Present subjunctive – irregular verbs | |||
| Applying for a job | Oral examination: role plays | ||||
| 4.5: Communication and technology at work | Talking about communication in the workplace | Negative imperatives (informal) | 6 lessons | A computer | Communicator |
| 4.5a- On the phone | ICT in the workplace | Telephone numbers | Reflective | ||
| 4.5b- ICT in the workplace | Making a phone call | Passive ‘se’ | |||
| 4.5c- My job interview | Taking part into a job interview | Future perfect | |||
| UNIT 5: The international perspective | Describing various modes of transport | Quantifiers | 4 lessons | Aeroplane | Principled |
| 5.1a- International travel | Organised and group holidays | Giving preferences | Communicator | ||
| 5.1b- Modes of transport | Ways of travelling | Si + conditional | |||
| 5.1c- Group holiday | Modal verbs | ||||
| 5.2: Weather on holiday | Talking about the weather | Passive ‘se’ | 4 lessons | Weather symbols | Inquirer |
| 5.2a- What is the weather like? | Climate in different regions | The pluperfect | Thinker | ||
| 5.2b- Disastrous holidays | Talking about the consequences of the weather | ||||
| 5.3: Festivals and faith | Talking about celebrations and religious festivals | Passive with ‘ser’ | 6 lessons | Party hat | Reflective |
| 5.3a- Celebrations and different faiths | Describing a family celebration | Para + infinitive | Open-minded | ||
| 5.3b- A lively celebration | Comparing a Spanish celebration with the rest of the world | Past continuous | |||
| 5.4: International menus | Recipes from around the world | Lo + adjective | 4 lessons | Food | Balanced |
| 5.4a- Recipes from other countries | Describing foreign dishes | Indefinite adjectives | Caring | ||
| 5.4b- Family meals | Comparing foreign dishes with Spanish cuisine | Ser vs estar | |||
| 5.5: Environmental problems | Talking about environmental issues | imperfect subjunctive + conditional | 4 lessons | Recycling | Knowledgeable |
| 5.5a- Ecological problems | Solutions to ecological problems | Conditional perfect | Thinker | ||
| 5.5b- Asturias: Environmental solutions | Talking about governemental actions to protect the environment |