The nature of the learners

At this level, children are developing awareness of their social worlds and of their memberships of various groups, including the Spanish class. They are further developing literacy capabilities in English, such as writing in the Roman alphabet, and this assists to some degree in learning Spanish. They benefit from varied, activity-based learning that builds on their interests and capabilities and makes connections with other areas of learning.

Spanish language learning and use

The development of oral proficiency at this stage continues to rely on rich language input in different modes, including examples of different accents and varieties of Spanish in the Spanish-speaking world. Children engage in a lot of listening and responding by actions, building active listening and comprehension skills. Language is authentic with some modification, involving familiar vocabulary and simple structures. Children are supported to expand their use of the language in familiar interactions and situations, such as exchanging simple ideas and information, negotiating predictable activities, and participating in shared tasks, performances and play. They continue to build vocabulary that can be adapted for different purposes, and to control simple grammatical forms with some accuracy. Attention is focused on grammar, vocabulary building, pronunciation, and non-verbal and cultural dimensions of language use through purposeful communicative activities and experiences.

Contexts of interaction

The contexts in which learners interact are primarily local: the classroom, school, home and community, with some access to wider communities of Spanish speakers and resources via digital technology.

Texts and resources

Children develop literacy skills and textual knowledge through supported interaction with a range of spoken, written, visual and multimodal texts. Imaginative and interactive texts (for example, picture books, stories, puppet plays, songs and games) develop the expressive and cultural dimensions of language. Texts such as negotiated classroom rules, lists of planned activities, and family or class profiles show how language is used to ‘get things done’. Learners may have access to resources developed for children in Spanish-speaking countries, such as children’s television programs, storybooks or web pages, as a way of developing cultural knowledge.

Features of Spanish language use

Learners recognise and use intonation patterns to express different meanings. They apply their knowledge of sound–letter associations to spell new words. They recognise and use elements of grammar such as gender and singular/plural forms, simple verb forms, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and prepositions to understand and to create simple spoken and written texts. Learning Spanish contributes to learners’ general literacy development and to the process of making sense of their worlds that characterises this stage of their development. As they encounter varieties of Spanish language and cultures represented in the Spanish-speaking world, they make comparisons with their own language(s) and culture(s) and consider their own ways of communicating. This leads to exploring concepts of identity, commonality and difference, and to thinking about cultural and linguistic diversity and about what it means to speak more than one language in the contemporary world.

Level of support

This stage of learning involves extensive support. Learners are given a variety of opportunities to apply their Spanish language knowledge in meaningful activities in order to build communicative skills, confidence and fluency. Tasks are carefully scaffolded. Teachers provide models and examples; introduce language, concepts and resources needed to manage and complete the task; make time for experimentation, drafting and redrafting; and provide support for self-monitoring and reflection.

The role of English

Learners are supported to use Spanish as much as possible for classroom routines, social interaction, structured learning tasks and language experimentation and practice. English is used for discussion, explanation and reflection, enabling learners to develop a language (a metalanguage) for sharing ideas about linguistic and cultural systems and experience. Using both Spanish and English in the classroom develops awareness of what it means to be bilingual.