Today I want to talk about our Spanish lessons for adults in Madrid. In this post I will introduce the basic arrangement of our intensive courses of Spanish and how we approach adult learning in our school: Cronopios Idiomas. I will also explain one learning activity you may find in our classes to set an example of what can you expect of the Spanish lessons in our school.

Truth to be told, our classes are generally aimed to adults. Learning a second language in immersion is an enterprise pursued by both adults, either young or not, and underage students. I our classes there can be students as young as 16 and as old as life can get, it’s up to the student! Students attending Spanish lessons for adults in Madrid do it for several reasons. There are young students wanting to access University in Spain, there are professionals living in Spain in need to develop their Spanish level for their work, there are also adults that have been studying Spanish for some time in their own countries and come every year for some days or weeks to booster their knowledge. Not to forget adults with a Spanish spouse or girlfriend or boyfriend in need to communicate in their love’s own language. And many more cases and situations we’ve encountered along the way.

Learning a second language for an adult can be a wonderful and fulfilling experience and can also be a challenge: for some students, this challenge can be more motivating than for others. Dealing with all the needs I´ve explained above as well as the obvious differences of students having a wide range of mother tongues is what makes our work so interesting. The experience of a Spanish teacher is constantly changing, because not only teaching one level or another is not the same but also teaching one group of students is completely different as teaching another.

To address this ever-changing environment, nowadays Spanish teachers generally choose: first, to speak Spanish from the very beginning. Our teachers are professionals that know perfectly well how to adapt the level of their communication to each group, they speak slower when required and use a range of words adapted to the knowledge of their students. Speaking Spanish from the very beginning does not mean that teachers lack other tools to explain themselves when needed.

Second: the aim of the classes is to create a learning environment where students communicate effectively in Spanish performing communicative tasks in real-life situations and contexts, such as introducing themselves in different social groups, making friends, shopping, going to the doctor, dealing with Spanish friends and culture, solving everyday issues like cleaning at home, choosing a movie, discussing the social and cultural topics of the week, expressing discomfort, cooking, and so on.

Obviously, Spanish lessons for adults in Madrid are not actually real-life situations. The lessons are taught in a classroom, there is a white board, chairs, and tables. Not to worry! Not only we all tend to be very comfy learning in a classroom, after all that´s how most of us have learnt our whole lives, but also, our teachers know how to induce the situation they want the student to communicate in, resulting in both fun and stimulating activities.

For instance, to learn the ways and vocabulary to interact in a restaurant, first we work with the student’s book: using audios, exercises, texts, images, and video we get in touch with the basics. Then we work in groups, the first thing we must do is create our own menu, either with our own dishes, or with Spanish ones. Afterwards and still working in groups, we recreate a restaurant in the class or somewhere in the school, including glasses, cutlery, tablecloth, salt, and the menus we created in the previous activity. The students act as waiters and customers taking turns, and the teacher checks out everybody is doing fine, helps when needed and makes sure is a pleasant activity for everyone involved. If there’s someone that would rather not act, we understand each one has different social skills, so the teacher will find another “job” for this person to do.

In our Spanish lessons for adults in Madrid, we learn by constantly communicating with each other and the teacher, but also, we can learn in the classic way, this means that there will be grammar explanations, sometimes fill in the blank exercises, and the infamous homework, which I honestly believe can be very useful for the students willing to do it.

So, when you come to our classes, feel free to share with the teacher which activities you prefer to do, but also let yourself try new ways of learning and trust that everything we do in class is aimed to your best interest, and, above all, enjoy learning another language, another point of view, a different way to be in the world.

Levels B1 and B2 represent the intermediate stage of mastery or independent use of the language, a fundamental stage in the consolidation of the language, with level B2 being the last before the level C1. B2 is where students achieve a sufficient range of linguistic and non-linguistic resources to participate in communicative exchanges with a degree of precision, fluency and naturalness so that their interlocutors do not have to make any particular effort. In addition, they acquire an awareness of the language that allows them to avoid mistakes that give rise to misunderstandings and to avoid situations of ambiguity. Spanish courses for level B2 involve the consolidation phase of the language, not only at a linguistic and communicative level but also as an intercultural speaker, autonomous learner and social agent, which is why Spanish courses for level B2 are fundamental in our journey of Spanish as a foreign language. Choosing a Spanish course well for level B2 is the key to success to close the door of the grammatical, lexical and basic functional content of Spanish and open, in turn, the mastery and perfection that level C supposes.

Objectives of Spanish courses for level B2

As we have explained previously, level B2 or advanced level is the last step before starting the higher level and mastery of C1 and C2, a level at which the student already enjoys sufficient linguistic independence thanks to its wide lexical range and functional, as well as an optimal control of the grammatical basis of the language.

The objectives of a B2 level Spanish course will be aimed at consolidating the Spanish language in all its aspects. This consolidation will allow the student to function in any ordinary transaction of their daily life. We must not forget that, in addition to the linguistic and functional contents of a language, we have fundamental cultural issues that the student must also learn. In this sense, the objectives of a B2 level contemplate the awareness of the student of cultural diversity, accept this diversity and take advantage of it as a source of knowledge, in addition to strengthening their motivations, their sensitivity and openness towards other cultures, in particular towards that of the Hispanic countries. This content is very important in the development of the student’s daily life, who will have to deal with complex and delicate intercultural situations. Cultural or intercultural errors often lead to very unpleasant situations that we have to avoid in class.

Last but not least, a fundamental objective of a B2 level Spanish course must seek to strengthen the student’s autonomy. The student must consciously and autonomously manage their own learning of Spanish, develop their own strategies and exercise conscious control over the affective factors that influence the language learning process.

As we can see, the objectives of a B2 level course are many and important. Achieving them will be essential in the consolidation of the language by the student; the role of the teacher, together with the characteristics and programming of the course, will play a fundamental role in achieving these objectives.

The grammar level in our B2 Spanish courses

We have previously described the objectives of a B2 Spanish course and it seems that we have tiptoed over the grammar issue. Grammar is of basic importance at this level, since it will be in B2 where the student completes their grammatical study of Spanish, not only in terms of studying verb tenses, but also, and almost more importantly, their use.

The review of previous grammatical contents, such as the past tenses, together with an in-depth study of all the subordination in Spanish will be two of the fundamental points of the grammar program of the level. Within this subordination our beloved subjunctive plays a basic role. The student will study the rest of the verb tenses of the subjunctive mood and their use within subordinate sentences: the conditional, concessive or relative ones will be grammatical content at this level.

How is grammar approached in a B2 level of Spanish? In the same way as in the rest of the levels: always in a communicative, functional and relevant way. Grammar is the gear that sets communication in motion together with the lexical component. In our B2 level Spanish courses, grammar always fulfills a communicative function, a function that occurs within real and pertinent contexts for the student. In this way, not only a greater motivation is achieved on the part of the student, but the grammar is assimilated in a more effective and adequate way.

The communication in the B2 level

Communication at a B2 level of Spanish is like a goal in a soccer game: it is our primary objective. You only learn a language by speaking, so communicating and putting everything studied in class into operation in that communication is the only way to learn a language. All objectives and grammar specified above are always communication oriented.

Asking, giving advice or reacting, transmitting what others have said, expressing opinions, agreement and disagreement or narrating events and events from the past are just some of the functions that communication will be aimed at at a B2 level of Spanish.

The linguistic tools that the student has at this level are greater than those of the same student at lower levels, with which, we must take advantage of this circumstance to always favor interaction on the part of our students. The teacher must always favor communication in the classroom. The class manual and academic programming will help us, in turn, to motivate the student with topics that are appropriate, pertinent and close to their reality.

What kind of activities will be done in B2 courses?

All the activities and exercises that we carry out in the Spanish courses for level B2 will have as objective communication, pertinent, real communication and adapted to the linguistic and functional contents of the level, starting from our approach by tasks.

Thus, when we study the relative sentences the student will have to simulate the purchase of a grammar book using indicative or subjunctive, depending on the idea of that object that he has in mind. Carrying out this real communicative exchange, which you may need in your day-to-day life, puts the studied grammar, lexical resources and functions into operation. In addition, these activities will be carried out in pairs or in a group which will help, in turn, to the cohesion of the same.

Other exercises at level B2 will have important playful elements that will help the assimilation of what has been studied, For example, the realization of the game called pasapalabra in groups or pairs to review relative sentences with prepositions or the description of the ideal boss or couple in which The student must use the perfect past subjunctive or the compound infinitive, together with the appropriate lexical resources. Both activities contain healthy play and competition elements that promote learning and group cohesion.

How do I know if I have a B2 level?

The best way is to come to our school, get to know it and take the placement test that we have, in addition, our coordinator or one of our teachers will chat with you for a little while to corroborate this level.These leveling tools are fairly accurate, though not perfect, and give us a true X-ray of the students’ level.

However, if once in the classroom you think that your level is higher or lower there is no problem of any kind. We have absolute flexibility to respond to student needs, so come on and visit us!Achieving level B2 is at your fingertips!

Playing is fashionable. It is increasingly common to find playful elements in apparently unrelated contexts (perhaps the clearest examples being the world of marketing and business), and words like gambling or serious games are on everyone’s lips. Teaching foreign languages is an ideal field for the application of some of these approaches, so in this entry we will talk about some games to learn Spanish in level A1.

We humans like to play. Disciplines such as psychology and anthropology have demonstrated the importance of the recreational dimension in the development of culture. According to the experts, when we play, as when we dedicate ourselves to everything that we are passionate about, time passes without us hardly noticing, because we have entered into a situation of perfect balance. For this to happen, however, a number of conditions need to be met, such as the rules being clear, the difficulty of the challenge we are facing being right and a precise objective being set. If these circumstances are met, there is no doubt that learning Spanish by playing is one of the best ways to do so.

Playing is one of the purest forms of learning that exists, as it basically consists of understanding a series of rules and getting the most out of them. There are many similarities between the playful and the educational process, so the use of games in the learning of second languages is especially appropriate. For example, it is possible to play games alone, and also to learn a language, but it is certainly more satisfying to do so together with others. On the other hand, we learn by solving problem situations, and what is a game if not a big problem that we have to solve in order to be successful? We could also say that, in the two processes we are talking about, participants learn by doing; or that making mistakes is something not only natural, but necessary when it comes to perfecting our skills either as students or players. For all these reasons and others, Cronopios Idiomas strongly recommends the use of games to learn Spanish in level A1.

Below we show you some of the game titles that we like the most to learn Spanish and that we use the most in our classes:

With millions of units sold worldwide, Dobble is undoubtedly one of the most popular card games around. The rules are very simple: participants must quickly find the only image that repeats between two cards with multiple figures and say it out loud before the others. Always according to this premise, there are four different game modes. The fact that it is so easy to understand makes it one of the best games for practising Spanish in level A1 (Games to practice/for practising Spanish in level A1), since with it you can work on your vocabulary and pronunciation almost from the first day of class. Due to its small size and its more than affordable price (around 15 euros), it is also ideal for students to learn Spanish by playing outside the classroom.

Another classic, winner of multiple awards, including Game of the Year in 2010. The rules are also very simple: in Dixit, each participant receives a series of cards with quite surreal illustrations (some of them true works of art) that can be interpreted in very different ways. In each round there will be a storyteller, who will have to choose one of his cards and think of a phrase (it can be just one word) inspired by the image that appears on it; this card is then mixed with others, and the rest of the players will have to guess which one of them is the one the storyteller used to build his phrase. But be careful: it is important that it is not too easy or too difficult, because if all the players (or none of them) get it right, all of them will score points except the storyteller. The favourite of the most creative students, Dixit is a point of reference when it comes to learning Spanish with games.

And we end up with what is probably the least known of the three, but has already become one of our favorite games to learn Spanish: Duplik, perfect for practicing description and reviewing contents towards the end of level A1. One of the participants takes a card and describes the image on it as accurately as possible, while the rest try to draw it before time expires. Then the secret requirements of the image are revealed: details that have to appear both in the description and in the drawing (for example, if there is a person: how is his hair, what position is he in, what kind of clothes is he wearing, are his eyes closed or open, is he looking left, right or straight ahead…). For each requirement fulfilled, both the narrator and the cartoonist will earn one point. Don’t worry if the visual arts are not your strong point: in Duplik it’s not the quality of the drawing that matters, but the elements that appear in it, and a scribble can beat a Velázquez painting. That is why, as the manufacturer himself says, it is the drawing game for those who cannot draw.