Spanish

Exam Board: AQA

A-Level Spanish is a stimulating course which is designed to develop students’ linguistic skills alongside their understanding of the culture and society of the countries where Spanish is spoken. Intensive yet motivating, activities in class help students manage the change to Advanced Level study successfully.

The course content is current, topical and exciting. Issues studied give students a greater cultural knowledge of the Hispanic world as well as an awareness of modern issues.

They will study technological change and social justice, with particular emphasis on the multicultural nature of Hispanic societies and how they are developing. They will also study highlights of Hispanic artistic culture, from Shakira to Frida Kahlo. The study of the diverse political landscape of the Hispanic world allows students to analyse and reflect on how the past influences the present. These topics allow students to gain an insight into the traditions and regional differences of Spain/Spanish-speaking Latin America, which will enlighten and broaden their perspective and attitudes towards these countries.

Confidence in listening skills increases through use of ICT and resources that students can use in their independent study time.

Finally, the opportunity to study a novel and a film and to carry out independent research on an area of the student’s choice are both excellent preparation for university-level study in any subject area.

The following course content is taught in relation to Spain and/or Spanish-speaking Latin America.

• Modern and traditional values
• Cyber space
• The influence of the Catholic Church
• Equal rights of women/LGBT+
• Immigration, integration, racism, and xenophobia.
• The influence of celebrities
• Regional identity in Spain
• Cultural heritage
• Politics and young people
• Spanish Civil War
• Franco’s dictatorship in Spain
• Latin American dictatorships
• The Spanish monarchy
• Demonstrations, protests and strikes.
• The study of a Spanish-language literary text: : Como Agua Para Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
• The study of a Spanish-language film: Volver by Pedro Almodóvar
• Individual Research Project

Assessment

100% examination.

Paper 1: Listening, reading and writing (50% of total A-Level)

Paper 2: Writing (20% of total A-Level)

Paper 3: Speaking (30% of total A-Level)

Where can it lead?

• BA Hispanic Studies  
• Spanish also makes an excellent combination with another language at university and other languages may be studied from scratch at many universities (e.g. Russian, German, French, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Catalan).
• At many universities, Spanish can be combined with other humanities and arts subjects to obtain a dual honours degree (e.g. Spanish with Law, English, History, Philosophy, Business, Management, Engineering, Journalism, Music or Marketing).  
• Only 5% of language graduates go into teaching with much fewer going into translation and interpreting, so these are certainly not the only career options! In fact, many go into business services, sales, banking/finance, community/social services, transport/communications.