Our levels

We offer a wide range of levels, from absolute beginners to very advanced. Students will normally need at least 40 hours tuition at any one level before advancing to the next course. The following table gives an idea of how our levels compare to those established by a number of other organisations:

IH Riv Maya	ACTFL	ALTE	DELE	CEF
Proficiency	Superior	Level 5 Good User	DELE Superior	C2 Mastery
Post-Advanced	Advanced High	Level 4 Competent User		C1+ Proficiency
Advanced	Advanced Mid	Level 4 Competent User	DELE Básico	C1 Proficiency
Pre-Advanced	Advanced Low	Level 3 Independent User		B2+ Vantage
Post-Intermediate	Intermediate High	Level 3 Independent User		B2 Vantage
Intermediate	Intermediate Mid	Level 2 Threshold	Certificado Inicial	B1 Threshold
Pre-Intermediate	Intermediate Low			A2+ Waystage
Elementary	Novice High	Level 1 Waystage		A2 Waystage
Pre-Elementary	Novice Mid			A1 Waystage
Beginners	Novice Low			Breakthrough

Key:

• IH Riv Maya: Levels at International House Riviera Maya
• ACTFL: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
• ALTE: Association of Language Testers in Europe
• CEF: Common European Framework
• DELE: Diploma de Español como Lengua Extranjera (the exams organised by the Instituto Cervantes)
  

 

Summary of Syllabus

Prerequisites: None for beginners; other courses are sequential

Phase 1 - Beginners, Pre-Elementary, Elementary

Students develop basic skills in Spanish grammar, including gender and number nouns, adjective formation, adverbs, adverbial phrases, comparative and superlative, prepositions and the use of ser and estar. Present, simple past and future tenses are presented at the appropriate level. Participants express needs and desires surrounding their daily routine and experience as a student in Mexico. They learn to identify and to describe people, places and objects in their environment and to express personal opinions in simple concrete language. Other basic functions of language include: agreeing and disagreeing, asking for help, expressing lack of understanding and asking an interlocutor to repeat or to speak more slowly. Participants develop comprehension of simple written and spoken messages in a variety of media: signs, news highlights, announcements, personal letters, postcards, etc. Instructors place language in its proper situational context which, at these levels, includes: the classroom, the workplace, the restaurant, the market/supermarket, the travel agency, a celebration or sporting event, etc.

Phase 2 - Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate, Post-Intermediate

In the intermediate levels, students develop an increasingly accurate use of Spanish grammar. Building on work in previous levels, students learn more subtle and idiomatic uses of grammatical forms including contrasting uses of the preterit and imperfect tenses. Instructors introduce complex verb forms such as the conditional and subjunctive moods for the first time. Students develop an understanding of more complex messages and learn to contribute comments and personal opinions to a conversation, turn-taking and other conversational norms. Participants begin to develop a passive understanding of colloquial phrases and slang. Students also learn to describe their personal experience in greater detail and to narrate events in the past with greater accuracy. Situations and topics include: the family, making invitations, describing character or personality, relationships, planning a celebration, the movies, asking for advice from friends, family or others, appreciating art and music and looking for a job or apartment. At this level, instructors begin to introduce more cultural topics and current events in the target language.

Phase 3 - Pre-Advanced, Advanced

The advanced levels provide students with an opportunity to hone their command of Spanish grammar, to develop fluency and to improve pronunciation. Upon completion of Phase 3, students will have covered the core grammatical syllabus. Students develop greater idiomatic control of the language and begin to understand movies, read literary passages and write advanced texts. Students develop ability with complex linguistic functions including: inferring opinions from a text or dialogue, arguing a point, recommending or giving advice and instructions and making predictions. Themes at this level may include idiomatic expressions, relationships, the newspapers and media, contemporary music, theatre and cultural events, etc. Specific topics vary according to the needs and interests of the class.

Phase 4 - Post-Advanced, Proficiency

These are the most advanced grammar and conversation courses offered and the most individualised. Instructors assess individual needs and design a programme to review complex grammatical forms that students have not fully mastered. As the names suggest, these courses are designed to perfect and polish linguistic ability. Instructors use a range of media and materials to develop the courses around topics of interest to the participants. Students further develop colloquial conversational ability. Students and instructors become co-creators of the course programme and work closely on individualised assignments.