AS / A2 Writing exam tips for language students
Revising for the exam
The key to getting a good mark in your writing part of the exam is to learn as much vocabulary as you can. Try to revise words every day leading up to the exam and ask someone to test you. To help you memorise words use pictures and images and group words into topic areas. Go through texts you have read in class and revise the words you find more difficult to remember.
Revise verb endings for different tenses, especially those you don’t use often: vosotros and ustedes forms.
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7 Good Reasons to Watch Foreign Films
How does watching movies help your language learning?
Sitting down to watch a film is one of the more enjoyable and effortless ways to improve your language skills. You do not have to understand everything that you hear to follow what is happening and to enjoy the film. You can watch something you are interested in that you can engage with. Thanks to the power of the internet, it is a great way to learn the real language without being in the country where it is spoken. Here are 7 reasons films help you learn the language: Continue reading
Tips for GCSE / AS / A2 Spanish – Using connecting phrases
To gain a higher grade in speaking and writing exams one tip is to use a good variety of connecting words and phrases which will help you sound more natural. These connecting words will link parts of a sentence together to make them more complex, earning you extra marks!
Tip: Try to use a wide range of connecting words and phrases rather than sticking to the same ones all the time. This shows the examiner that you have a wide range of vocabulary at your fingertips.
Here are some key connecting words and phrases to learn: Continue reading
10 Ways How Actively Watching Movies Helps You Learn Spanish
According to a survey conducted by IPSOS in 2012, 25% of jobs in 26 countries required interaction with people from other countries. For example, being a dissertation writer for international students at uk-dissertation.com or being a translator for an English diplomat coming to Madrid for the first time, requires having sound knowledge of Spanish.
Learning a new language like Spanish is very important. However, finding time to learn a language for the first time, or building on the knowledge, is not always easy. It doesn’t matter whether you are a professor, an English editor at topeduservices.com or a wannabe Spanish speaker, learning the language efficiently, requires finding an interesting way to do it.
An easy and entertaining way of learning Spanish is by watching some Spanish movies. You should apply the following simple tips to make it really effective. Continue reading
Why Watching Disney Films in Spanish is a Great Language Learning Tool!
Everyone has a favourite Disney film or one that they have seen before and know so well. Why not turn watching a Disney movie into a fun way to learn or improve your Spanish?
Many people are finding that by signing up to Disney Plus they can watch their favourite Disney films in Spanish with either Spanish or English subtitles. You will be amazed how many new words you pick up!
In today’s blog post we will teach you how to get the most out of watching movies to learn Spanish. Continue reading
12 Powerful Strategies to Improve Reading in Spanish
One of the best ways to progress in Spanish (or any foreign language) is to do more reading. By reading a variety of different materials in the target language you will not only learn more words and phrases but you will see how the language is used in different contexts.
As well as simply reading, there are certain methods you can use to maximise your reading time to make even more progress in Spanish.
The aim of this blog post is to give you a few tips as to how you can read in Spanish to help you improve the fastest.
1) Decide what to read carefully
* Read about something that you enjoy, something that interests you and that you care about. If you start reading something you aren’t really interested in, you will be much less likely to check what the words mean and learn anything from it. Reading something that interests you is the key to staying motivated.
* Think about your end goal. Why are you learning Spanish? If it is to do business you need to read more formal language. If it is to fully immerse yourself in the language you would try tackling a novel or a magazine. Continue reading
Tips to Achieve a Top Grade in the Spanish GCSE Writing Exam
This summer is the first set of the new style Spanish GCSE exam. The new “higher” tier exam involves three questions. You are given two options for the first two questions.
The first question is to write approximately 90 words responding to 4 bullet points. This may be in the style of a letter to a friend or an email.
The second question is a longer, more open written task of approximately 150 words in which you only have 2 compulsory bullet points to respond to. This could be a blog article, an email or an article for a magazine.
The third question is a translation from English into Spanish of a minimum of 50 words.
Tips to get top marks
8 Speaking Exercises You Can Do On Your Own to Improve your Spanish
Speaking is the most important skill to master to become fluent and communicate effectively with people. However it is also the most difficult skill to improve compared with reading and writing.
Myths about improving speaking
1) You have to be in a classroom.
2) You have to live in a Spanish-speaking country.
This is just not true. Thanks to technology today you can easily improve speaking a foreign language from the comfort of your own home on your own.
8 speaking activities you can do on your own:
How to Learn Spanish Solo
Tips to help you get started!
Deciding to learn a language on your own, without going to a group class, college course or having lessons with a private tutor is a brave decision. Obviously there are reasons why you may have no other option – your working hours or busy lifestyle may not allow you to attend a class at a college at the same time each week, you may not be able to find a good private tutor near you or you may not want to pay their fees.
The truth is that learning a language on your own is challenging but it is definitely possible and if you follow a structured approach you can make excellent progress within a short amount of time. The good things about learning on your own are that you can learn at your own pace, you create your own deadlines and you will have a greater sense of achievement once you reach your goals. Continue reading
Learn Spanish with Music – the Lirica App
Most people think that learning a language is too difficult and time consuming even to string together a few basic phrases. Some people think it is too difficult to master the pronunciation and to be understood when speaking the language. The reality is that nowadays there are so many different ways to learn foreign languages with technology and apps that anyone can do it!
One of the best ways to perfect your pronunciation is by listening to songs sung by natives in the language. How many times has a song’s lyrics got stuck in your head so that you are singing them without even thinking about it.
This is the aim of the new app for learning Spanish with songs – the Lirica App, (iOS and Android) one of “Google Play’s hidden gems of 2018”. Continue reading
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