Tag Archives: Skype Lessons

Spanish teacher Ivan

Featured Spanish Teacher of the Month – Iván Aguilar

Our team of teachers is spread across boundaries. Each of them brings in a unique teaching style, cultural experience, and a new set of language learning tips.

This month, we travel all the way to Peru to meet our teacher of the month – Iván Aguilar. Iván has been rated as a 5 star teacher consistently by all the students on CultureAlley. Here are some great learning tips from Iván.

1) Tell us a little about yourself.

My name is Iván Aguilar. I’m from Peru, a country located in South America. Currently I’m working as an English and Spanish teacher and Academic Coordinator at a Language School in Perú. Spanish is my mother tongue and I just love teaching it. I also love spreading the love for Peruvian culture and music! :)

2) What motivated you to start teaching languages?

This has been a long an interesting path I followed. I studied to be a Social Science teacher, but I got involved in language teaching and found my true professional call. I really like to see how my students overcome the language barrier and become what we might call world citizens by sharing their culture and opinions with the world through the internet or in person. It is really rewarding to be able to contribute to this process.

3) Tell us about your teaching experience – How long have you been teaching, what kind of students have you taught?

Well, I have been teaching for about ten years now. I’ve taught all ages from 6-year-old kids – the most energetic- to adult students.

Most of my students are university students who need to know at least two languages in order to get their degrees.

I’ve also taught some teaching methodology courses.

4) Why you think learning new languages is beneficial?

I think languages are very important since they allow people to connect with other people.

I’ve seen how the perception of the world changes while learning a new language because indirectly a new language always brings about the learning of a new culture.

This is one first step to make ourselves part of a more understanding and global world. Besides it is great to see how learning a new language enriches a person.

As the quote says: “Learn a new language, get a new soul”

Needless to say there are many more academic and professional doors opened for the ones who learn new languages.

5) Please give our readers some tips on learning languages.

I have just two words : practice and connect. It is great to practice grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc. But it is also really relevant to connect all that is being practiced with our real lives.

If you are practicing a specific grammar pattern, get some time to write your very personal sentences because in the end you want your new language to talk about yourself, your ideas, your opinions, your country, the things that matter to you.

For me,

connecting also means talking or writing to people who are learning or are native speakers of the language that you have chosen to learn.

This always makes your language learning more meaningful and prepares you for real-life interaction.

6) Tell us about your most interesting experience while learning or teaching Spanish yourself.

I like the various forms of art very much. I think immersing yourself in a form of art is a great strategy to learn a language.

One of the most interesting experiences I had, was helping my students to prepare for doing some drama (acting) as a part of their course. Not only did we have a lot of fun, but I also could see students devoting a lot of time in learning their lines and linking this to their acting. It was great!

7) How have you worked with CultureAlley to spread the love for language learning?

I feel glad to be working with a very organized and creative team as the one of CultureAlley. They are building the much needed bridges to help students get high quality language instruction. At the same time I feel they are cooperating through the teaching of languages to create bounds of international friendship. It feels great to be able to make some little contribution to this project.

8) A final word of advice for budding language learners?

Don’t stop learning new languages, don’t stop knowing new worlds!

If you wish to take lessons with Iván, just fill up this form: http://culturealley.com/SkypeLiveLessonform.jsp

CXC Spanish

The CXC Spanish Examination (CAPE Spanish): Ace your Spanish exam

In our last blog post, we talked about the CXC CSEC examination and the exam pattern, and syllabus for CSEC Spanish. We also discussed some tips and reviewed some resources for preparing for the CSEC Spanish examination. Today we discuss the syllabus, exam pattern, and learning tips and resources for the CXC CAPE Spanish examination.

The Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) is designed to provide certification of academic, vocational and technical achievement to students who, having completed a minimum of five years of secondary education, wish to further their studies.

The Spanish syllabus for CAPE (Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination), emphasizes on the development of the four language skills (listening, reading, speaking and writing) and the knowledge of Hispanic culture.

Exam pattern: CXC Spanish (CAPE)

  1. Paper 01 (1 hour): Listening Comprehension (30% weightage)
    Candidates are to answer six compulsory short-response questions.
  2. Paper 02 (2 hours and 10 minutes) Reading and Writing (30%)
    Candidates are to answer three questions.
  3. Paper 03 (2 hours) Literary Analysis and Themes (20%)
    Candidates are to answer two questions.
  4. Paper 04 – Oral Examination (20%)

Syllabus: CXC Spanish (CAPE)

  1. UNIT 1: LA FAMILIA, LA SOCIEDAD Y EL MEDIO AMBIENTE (THE FAMILY, SOCIETY AND THE ENVIRONMENT)
    1. Module 1: El individuo, la familia y la vida diaria (The individual, family and daily life)
    2. Module 2: La sociedad y los asuntos sociales (Society and social issues)
    3. Module 3: El medio ambiente (The environment)
    4. Themes and Related Texts
      1. La juventud

        García Ramis, Magali     Felices días tío Sergio, San Juan: Antillana, 1986.
        Cisneros, Sandra   La casa en Mango Street, United States: Vintage, 1994.

      2. El individuo y la sociedad
        Esquivel, Laura   Como agua para chocolate, New York: Anchor Books, 1989.
        García Lorca, Federico   Bodas de sangre, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 2006.

  2. UNIT 2: LAS ACTUALIDADES, LA TECNOLOGÍA Y LA ECONOMÍA (THE NEWS, TECHNOLOGY AND THE ECONOMY)
    1. Module 1: Las actualidades (The news)
    2. Module 2: La ciencia y la tecnología (Science and technology)
    3. Module 3: La industria y los asuntos económicos (Industry and Economic Affairs)
    4. Themes and Related Texts
      1. El mundo moderno
        1. Allende, Isabel        Cuentos de Eva Luna, Mexico: Debolsillo, 2008.

          (a)  ”Dos palabras” pp 15-24
          (b)  ”la mujer del juez” pp 156-166
          (c)  ”Un camino hacia el norte” pp 167-180
          (d)  ”El palacio imaginado” pp 249-265
          (e)  ”De barro estamos hechos” pp 266-277.

        2. Ortiz, Lourdes         Fátima de los naufragios. Madrid: Planeta, 1998:
          (a) “Fatima de los naufragios” pp 7-22
          (b) “La piel de Marcelinda” pp 25-42
          (c) “El vuelo de la mariposa” pp 43-96
          (d) “Desayuno de trabajo” pp 99-108
          (e) “El Farero” pp 111-117

        3. El compromiso político y social
          Carpentier, Alejo    El reino de este mundo, New Jersey: Lectorum Publications, 2010.
          García Márquez, Gabriel   El coronel no tiene quien le escriba, United Kingdom: Manchester University Press, 1981.

A detailed list of topics can be found here: http://www.cxc.org/SiteAssets/syllabusses/CAPE/CAPE%20Spanish.pdf

Preparing yourself for the CXC Spanish examination (CAPE)

  1. Start well in time: The exams begin in April (21st to 28th – Orals) and May (Spanish unit 1 – May 15th, unit 2 – May 20th). Start at least 6-8 months in advance and take one topic at a time. After finishing each topic, solve a lot of past question papers on that topic. Then move on to the next topic. Leave the last 1 month completely for practice

  2. Get expert help: If you truly want to ace the examination, then study Spanish with the help of an expert native tutor. The CAPE Spanish needs you to develop listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills. To truly master the listening and speaking skills, you need interaction with someone who speaks Spanish – and can help you speak it too! An expert will also be able to guide you with an organized study plan, grammar help, regular practice, and more. If you can’t find a tutor in your city, you can take 1on1 lessons with an expert tutor over Skype – from the comfort of your home – at hours convenient for you!
    If you haven’t started preparing yet, we recommend taking at-least 3-4 sessions a week along with self-study and practice.

  3. Self study: Along with the tutoring sessions, you should spend at-least an hour studying yourself. You can find some great self-study lessons and practice exercises online on the topics prescribed in the syllabus for the CAPE Spanish exam. We have listed some resources at the end of this post.

1on1 Live Skype lessons with native Spanish tutors – To help you ace the CXC Spanish Exam

Live lessons with expert native tutors is the most effective and personalized way to learn Spanish.

CultureAlley offers 1on1 video conferencing based lessons with expert Spanish tutors who can help the students with all aspects of the CXC examination. The lessons are completely interactive, and fun, and include all 4 aspects – reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

The tutors personalize the course completely to focus on topics related to the CXC examination, and focus on topics which the student finds difficult. They give regular practice exercises to help with the problem areas.

The lessons include:

  1. Grammar practice,
  2. Conversational practice,
  3. Vocabulary,
  4. Fun exercises like role playing, reading, music based listening practice, watching videos and understanding their meaning, and more!

You can take these lessons at hours convenient for you. All you need is a Skype account, and you can get connected with one of our tutors for 1on1 lessons from the comfort of your home!

Find out more
To book a Skype session just fill up this form

More resources:

70 free audio-visual lessons with interactive practice: Cover topics like: talking about family, introductions, beginning and ending letters, expressing opinions, commands, business Spanish, Spanish grammar and more!

Audio dictionary (English to Spanish): with curated words and audio support so that students can hear the pronunciation

So start preparing for your CXC exam today!

CXC Spanish Exam

The CXC Spanish Examination 2014 (CSEC and CAPE) – How to prepare for and ace your Spanish exam

The examinations conducted by the CXC (Caribbean Examinations Council) are popular examinations in the Caribbean countries. Spanish is one of the subjects in this examination. Today, we share some details on the pattern of this examination, topics covered, and also talk about ways by which students can excel in their CXC Spanish test (resource references are at the end of the post).

cxc logoCXC is the regional examining body of the Caribbean that provides educational certifications in 16 English speaking Commonwealth Caribbean Countries, and some Dutch speaking Territories. Its new vision is to “assure the global human resource competitiveness of the Caribbean”

For employers and parents, CXC is about certification, mainly CSEC® or CAPE®. Most Caribbean people see CXC largely as an examining body which issues certifications that have become increasingly recognized worldwide.

  • The Caribbean Secondary Education Certification (CSEC) -  usually taken by students after five years of secondary school. It is equivalent to the Ordinary Level (O-Levels) examinations and are targeted towards students sixteen and older.

  • The Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE) – taken by students who have completed their secondary education and wish to continue their studies.  The CAPE is equivalent to the British Advanced Levels (A-levels).

CXC Spanish examination – CSEC

In this blog post, we will cover the guidelines, exam pattern, the syllabus, and resources for past papers for CSEC Spanish (part of the Modern Languages) and also how one can easily learn Spanish for this examination. In the next post, you will find the same details for the CAPE Spanish exam.

The Spanish syllabus focuses on developing students’ ability to communicate in Spanish. As students develop the competence to listen, speak, read and write in Spanish and interpret aspects of the culture, they acquire the means to facilitate deeper interaction with Caribbean neighbors.

Exam pattern

The exam tests candidates on: listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills.

  1. Paper 01 – General Proficiency (1 hour 20 minutes) – 60 marks – A 60-item Multiple Choice test in two sections
    1. Part A – Listening Comprehension (30 items)
    2. Part B – Reading Comprehension (30 items)
  2. Paper 02 – Written paper (2 hours 15 minutes) – 100 marks
    1. Section 1 – Requires candidates to provide written responses to various situations in Spanish
    2. Section 2 – Choose between writing an informal letter (130-150 words) OR a composition (130-150 words)
    3. Section 3 – Choose between writing a contextual announcement (80-100 words) OR a contextual dialog (80-100 words)
    4. Section 4 – Reading comprehension – candidates need to read a comprehension in Spanish and answer the questions in English
  3. Paper 03 - Oral (10-15 minutes) – 80 marks
    1. Section 1 – Requires candidates to answer orally (in Spanish) to situations given in English (see some sample papers)
    2. Section 2 – Read a passage in Spanish aloud
    3. Section 3 – Answer orally to 4 questions
Syllabus

Candidates should be able to carry out guided conversations based on the following topics:

  1. Home and Family
  2. School and Career
  3. Sports and Recreation
  4. Daily Routines
  5. Shopping
  6. Travel
Tenses:
  1. Present
  2. Present Continuous
  3. Future
  4. Preterite
  5. Imperfect
  6. Past Continuous
  7. Present Perfect
  8. Pluperfect
  9. Conditional
Moods:
  1. Indicative
  2. Imperative
  3. Infinitive
  4. **Present Subjunctive
  5. *Imperfect Subjunctive*
    *For recognition at General Proficiency only

The CXC guidelines also list out the detailed topics that students should know such as greetings and responses, farewells, introductions, beginning and ending letters, expressing gratitude, inviting, filling a form, describing weather, expressing opinions, commands, and more!

A detailed list of topics can be found here: http://www.cxc.org/SiteAssets/syllabusses/CSEC/CSEC%20Modern%20Languages.pdf

Preparing yourself for the CXC Spanish examination (CSEC)

  1. Start well in time: The orals begin in April (21st-28th) and the Spanish 1 and 2 exams are in June 11th and May 23rd respectively. Start at least 7-8 months in advance and take one topic at a time. After finishing each topic, solve a lot of past question papers on that topic. Then move on to the next topic. Leave the last 1 month completely for practice.

  2. Get expert help: If you truly want to ace the examination, study Spanish with the help of an expert native tutor. The CSEC Spanish syllabus needs you to develop listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills. To truly master the listening and speaking skills, you need interaction with someone who speaks Spanish – and can help you speak it too! An expert will also be able to guide you with an organized study plan, grammar help, regular practice, and more. If you can’t find a tutor in your city, you can take 1on1 lessons with an expert tutor over Skype – from the comfort of your home – at hours convenient for you!
    If you haven’t started preparing yet, we recommend taking at-least 3-4 sessions a week along with self-study and practice.

  3. Self study: Along with the tutoring sessions, you should spend at-least an hour studying yourself. You can find some great self-study lessons and practice exercises online on the topics prescribed in the syllabus for the CSEC Spanish exam. We have listed some resources at the end of this post.

Getting expert help from Spanish teachers

CultureAlley offers 1on1 Live Skype lessons with native Spanish tutors to help you ace the CXC Spanish Exam. It is one of the most effective and personalized way to learn Spanish.

The lessons are 1on1 video conferencing sessions with Spanish tutors who can help the students with all aspects of the CXC examination. The lessons are completely interactive and fun, and include all 4 aspects – reading, writing, listening, and speaking.

The tutors personalize the course completely to focus on topics related to the CXC examination, and focus on topics which the student finds difficult. They give regular practice exercises to help with the problem areas.

The lessons include:

  1. Grammar practice,
  2. Conversational practice,
  3. Vocabulary,
  4. Fun exercises like role playing, reading, music based listening practice, watching videos and understanding their meaning, and more!

You can take these lessons at hours convenient for you. All you need is a Skype account, and you can get connected with one of our tutors for 1on1 lessons from the comfort of your home!

Find out more!
To book a Skype session just fill up this form: http://culturealley.com/SkypeLiveLessonform.jsp

More learning resources:

  1. More than 70 free audio-visual lessons with interactive practice : CultureAlley Spanish
    Covers topics like: greetings and responses, farewells, introductions, beginning and ending letters, expressing gratitude, inviting, filling a form, describing weather, expressing opinions, commands, and more!
  2. Audio dictionary (English to Spanish): with curated words and audio support so that students can hear the pronunciation
  3. Past question papers: Refer to our blog post where we have shared a lot of past papers

So start preparing for your CXC exam today!

CXC Official site: http://www.cxc.org/

Featured Mandarin Coach of the Month – Sunny Dang

This month we interview one of our star Mandarin coaches – Sunny Dang. Sunny is a native Mandarin speaker, and a certified TCSL teacher based in Beijing.
She has achieved a Bachelor’s degree from Beijing Language and Cultural University. Read on for some great Mandarin learning tips from Sunny!

CA: Tell us a little about yourselfSunny
Sunny: My name is Sunny Dang and my Chinese name is Dang Yanfen. I’m from China and I’m a Chinese teacher. Chinese is my native language.

CA: Tell us about your teaching experience
Sunny: I am extremely passionate about teaching languages and have taught at all the levels. I have an offline teaching experience of 10 years and have also been teaching online for the last 6 years!

CA: How do you think learning new languages is beneficial?
Sunny: Learning a new language is like an eye opener towards a new culture. Like for a person learning Mandarin, he grows to learn the folklore, history, traditions, cultures and so much more! It is also great to improve communication and business prospects with a new geography. China is a growing economy – people are looking to study in China, do business with China, learn about the culture further – knowing Mandarin goes a long way in making these more fruitful.

CA: Please give our readers some tips on learning Mandarin Chinese
Sunny: If you are learning on your own, it’ll be better to listen to the audio, and practice with native speakers. This will help in improving your pronunciation and you will be confident to speak in public. If possible, take some tutoring lessons to make sure your tones are correct. If you can spend 15-30 everyday on learning Chinese, that would be ideal.

CA: Tell us about your most interesting experience while learning or teaching Mandarin yourself
Sunny: I enjoy teaching children a lot because I can play games with them. They are some of my sharpest learners! :)

CA: How have you worked with CultureAlley to spread the love for language learning
Sunny: I have worked very closely with CultureAlley since their inception to create their Mandarin content. And since then been tutoring with them to help more and more people learn new languages.I enjoy working with them a lot!

CA: How can our learners get in touch with you?
Sunny: They can post their questions on the CultureAlley forum and I can respond to them. They can also take personalized 1on1 Skype sessions with me :)