What Spanish learning materials does SpanishBlackbelt use?
Our teaching materials, all developed in house, are ideal to give our tutors and students a clear guidance on how to use their class time in an effective and efficient manner.
Our teaching materials are mobile friendly and accessible by our current students from any device at no extra charge through our site.
Our Spanish students and tutors can access these teaching materials online anytime they need it, either preparing for a class, reviewing after a class, or during a class.
Materials also help students be more ready to take the most advantage of the time they meet with their instructor.
Students are able to generate printouts if desired.
Benefits of our learning materials
Click on each section to read details.
Our Spanish learning materials stand out as the best because they prioritize what you need for effective communication in simple terms.
These materials have undergone extensive testing and validation by our students over the years.
Rather than attempting to cover everything, our materials aim to provide ample opportunities and ideas, allowing you to apply key knowledge in practical settings.
Our Spanish classes are specifically designed to enhance your speaking and listening skills, addressing the primary interests of most students. However, we also emphasize the development of other language skills simultaneously such as reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary acquisition.
We firmly believe that an excessive focus on grammar can undermine confidence in speaking. Therefore, grammar is seamlessly integrated into everyday topics, making it functional and promoting a more fluid conversation in less time and with less effort.
Our approach emphasizes practical usage rather than striving for flawless perfection. Speaking with errors is considered more valuable than being overwhelmed by an abundance of information and grammar rules. As you progress through different levels, addressing imperfections becomes a gradual process.
The materials, homework, and activities are designed with the expectation that you will make numerous mistakes in class. Correcting these anticipated errors provides you with the opportunity to refine your language skills before applying them in real-world scenarios. This correction process also aids in reinforcing the adjustments needed for continual improvement in your speaking abilities over time.
Our learning materials ensure an immersive journey right from the start, placing you in real-world situations through engaging exercises and activities. This approach is designed to build your confidence in using Spanish across various contexts. We guide you step by step, facilitating a natural, versatile, and stress-free learning process.
By immersing you in the language from the outset, we aim to make your learning experience both practical and seamless, fostering a deep understanding and application of Spanish in diverse situations.
Our materials are designed to be concise, ensuring you won't spend an eternity grasping the fundamentals of the language.
The content is tailored to optimize each tutoring session, enabling you and your tutor to efficiently apply new chapter content during every meeting.
We are genuinely confident that your journey to learn Spanish with us, guided by our skilled tutors and comprehensive teaching materials, will be an enjoyable and rewarding experience. Keep always in mind that the way we use our materials can be adjusted to match your unique preferences and learning styles.
Your voice matters, and we are always eager to receive your feedback to enhance and continually improve the overall student experience. Your satisfaction and success in learning Spanish are our top priorities.
Frequently Asked Questions
We do not use text books or grammar books. Grammar books are normally not good tools to learn a language. Most of them are too long, impractical and confusing. They can sometimes be used, though, as reference to clarify ideas.
Our teaching materials, in contrast, are much better simply because it covers what you need to use in most conversations in very simple terms.
Please note that if you require us to follow a specific book, and not our own material, you will be responsible for sharing this material with your tutor electronically by either providing her/him with a pdf, a link to it, or by screen sharing. If the book is only available in physical form and you would need your tutor to have a copy of it, you will need to send us the link to the book on Amazon and add the cost of it to your tuition. We would then purchase it and send it to the instructor. The cost to purchase the book will be non-refundable.
At our Spanish language school, we pride ourselves on our innovative teaching approach, which centers around the use of comprehensible input material.
Comprehensible input is a foundational concept in language acquisition that revolves around exposing learners to language in a context that they can understand, even if they don't fully grasp all the words or grammar rules.
We ensure that our students engage with authentic and meaningful content that is tailored to their proficiency level, allowing them to absorb the language naturally.
Whether it's through immersive conversations, culturally rich texts, or interactive activities, we believe that comprehensible input is the key to fostering a deep and lasting understanding of the Spanish language.
Teaching material is accessible by our current students at no extra charge through our site. There students will be able to access all material to be used in class and additional resources to complement your face-to-face instruction with some self-studying at home.
Students will be able to generate printouts of this material 24x7.
Yes! All of our learning materials are embedded in Hispanic culture. Materials include among others, role plays of situations that you would encounter while interacting with Hispanics here or in their native soils. They may also include hispanic songs, movies, newspaper articles, and topics of discussion relevant to Latin America and Spain.
The fact that your tutor will be a native Spanish speaker will also help you get more comfortable interacting with Hispanics while getting used to his/her sense of humor, opinions, interaction, topics of interest, and in depth knowledge of issues facing the Hispanic world.
To safeguard our intellectual property, only our current students have access to our proprietary teaching material. Just like all of them, you will have access to it at no extra cost once you enroll for any of our courses.
If after you are given access to this material you believe that it will not add the value that you were expecting, you will be entitled to request a full refund provided that you notify our office of this request by email within the following 48 hours after you had your first session. You may also request to be transferred to a higher or lower level if needed.
In order to provide you with some detail, though, material for each of the 10 levels of our course for Everyday Conversation for example includes 16 chapters, each with a specific vocabulary set and grammar structure with which you will be working on with the help of your tutor.
The syllabus for each level will include theory that you can read at home to be more ready to participate in class when trying to put in practice that theory. These syllabi will also include activities suggested to be done at home (homework) so that you can try to apply that theory yourself first before you apply it in front of your classmates and/or tutor. Your tutor will then guide you in class through different participatory activities and help you along the way with praise, reinforcement, and aid.
Main objectives for each of our levels can be found here.
Most people have some prior knowledge of Spanish when joining the program. They have either studied it in high school or in college. Despite this experience being welcomed, students may still be placed in the Beginner 1 level, Pearl Belt, for example, if not able to recall or use the language verbally and efficiently in the present tense.
Generally ...
- If you are NOT able to fully express yourself verbally in the present tense, then level Cream Belt (Beginner 2) may be the right level for you.
- If you are able to fully express yourself verbally in the present tense, then level Yellow Belt (Beginner 3) may be the right level for you.
Homework is not mandatory in private one-on-one classes but highly recommended. Homework is required as part of group sessions.
As part of your homework, you will be required to read theory related to the concepts to be worked on in each of the following classes so that you can take advantage of the program. Homework will also include some assignments so that you can attempt to put into practice those concepts you read about. It is by trying on your own and bringing those efforts back to class that you will take most advantage of the program. Your native Spanish tutor will be able to clarify any doubts that you may have and engage you in activities so that you can put into practice in real conversations the topics to which each session will be dedicated.
Homework typically will require probably the same number of hours per week as the number of hours that you meet with your tutor. As an alternative, but only in the case of one-on-one classes, we can dedicate time of class to do the activities normally recommended to be done at home, but this will slow down the new content coverage in half.
Between theory, at-home activities and in-class exercises, expect to work with learning materials anywhere between 2 to 10 pages per hour of class. Teaching materials are accessible only by active students.
Don't worry too much if you find yourself occasionally unable to complete your homework. You'll still benefit from the valuable time spent with your tutor in an immersive setting, even if you had limited time to prepare.
