What will I be able to do in Spanish 1?

Spanish 1 Team Leader:

• Isabel Hill 
• email  |  website

Spanish 1 Teachers

According to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for language other than English or TEKS, students in Spanish I are expected to reach a proficiency level of Novice Mid to Novice High, as defined in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 and the ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners. 

LANGUAGE SKILLS:

Listening:

At the Novice level, listeners can understand key words, cognates (words that look / sound/ and mean the same in two different langauges), and formulaic expressions that are highly contextualized and highly predictable, such as those found in introductions and basic courtesies. Novice-level listeners understand words and phrases from simple questions, statements, and high-frequency commands. They typically require repetition, rephrasing, and/or a slowed rate of speech for comprehension. They rely heavily on extralinguistic support to derive meaning such as body language and facial expressions.

Reading:

At the Novice level, readers can understand key words and cognates (words that look / sound/ and mean the same in two different langauges), as well as formulaic phrases that are highly contextualized. Novice-level readers are able to get a limited amount of information from highly predictable texts in which the topic or context is very familiar, such as a hotel bill, a credit card receipt, or a weather map. Readers at the Novice level may rely heavily on their own background knowledge and extralinguistic support (such as the imagery on the weather map or the format of a credit card bill) to derive meaning. .

Speaking:

Novice-level speakers can communicate short messages on highly predictable, everyday topics that affect them directly. They do so primarily through the use of isolated words and phrases that have been encountered, memorized, and recalled. Novice-level speakers may be difficult to understand even by the most sympathetic interlocutors accustomed to non-native speech.

Writing:

Writers at the Novice level are characterized by the ability to produce lists and notes, primarily by writing words and phrases. They can provide limited formulaic information on simple forms and documents. These writers can reproduce practiced material to convey the most simple messages. In addition, they can transcribe familiar words or phrases, copy letters of the alphabet or syllables of a syllabary, or reproduce basic characters with some accuracy.