St. Mary's

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Spanish

  • A Level
  • Head of MFL: Miss Lynch

Is this course for me?

Spanish is a fantastic and important language to learn. With more than 500 million speakers worldwide in Spain, Latin America, the United States and even the Philippines, knowledge of Spanish is a definite advantage in today’s competitive job market. Spanish is useful as one of the top five languages for business. The Spanish department’s mission is to instil a passion for this exciting language and to provide you with an invaluable tool for your future, making you highly competitive and employable.

Areas of Study

The course involves a range of topics focussing on Aspects of Hispanic society, Multiculturalism in Hispanic society, Artistic culture in the Hispanic world and Aspects of political life in the Hispanic world. You will also undertake an in-depth study of either one literary text and one film, or two literary texts. In addition, you will research a topic of your choice for the speaking exam. Studying Spanish at A level promotes greater fluency, grammatical accuracy and confidence in all forms of language. You will develop your knowledge through reading and listening to authentic source materials and learning how to extract information, initiate conversations and respond to questions both orally and in writing.

Paper 1 (50%) – listening, reading and writing exam, including short translations from Spanish into English and English into Spanish.

Paper 2 (20%) – writing exam, an essay on each of the literary texts/films studied.

Paper 3 (30%) – speaking exam on the four themes and an independent research project.

Future Opportunities

Spanish is seen as an academic subject by universities and at degree level combines well with almost any subject. A successful grade in this course offers valuable skills for foreign travel, further education and employment. Example careers are: translator or interpreter (United Nations, European Union, NATO), tourism, business, the airline industry, finance, e-commerce, teaching and the Foreign Service, among many other career paths.
Click here to view the AQA Specification
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