Spanish (Version 8.4)

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Context statement

The place of the Spanish language and the cultures of Spanish speakers in Australia and in the world
Spanish is a global language spoken by approximately 500 million people across the world. Spanish evolved from Latin on the Iberian Peninsula in around the ninth century, and travelled from Spain to the Caribbean and to North, Central and South America as a result of the expeditions of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

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PDF documents

Resources and support materials for the Australian Curriculum: Languages - Spanish are available as PDF documents. 
Languages - Spanish: Sequence of content
Languages - Spanish: Sequence of Achievement - F-10 Sequence
Languages - Spanish: Sequence …

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Years 9 and 10

Years 9 and 10 Band Description

The nature of the learners

Students have prior experience of learning Spanish and bring a range of capabilities, strategies and knowledge that can be applied to new learning. They are expanding the range and nature of their learning experiences and of the contexts within which they communicate with others. They have a growing awareness of the wider world, including the diversity of languages, cultures and forms of intercultural communication. They are considering future pathways and prospects, including how Spanish may feature in these.

Spanish language learning and use

This is a period of language exploration and vocabulary expansion, and of experimentation with different modes of communication such as digital and hypermedia, collaborative performance and group discussions. Increasing control of language structures and systems builds confidence and interest in communicating in a wider range of contexts. Learners use Spanish to communicate and interact, to access and exchange information, to express feelings and opinions, to participate in imaginative and creative experiences, and to design, interpret and analyse a wide range of texts and experiences. They use Spanish more fluently, with a greater degree of self-correction and repair. They reference the accuracy of their language use against a stronger frame of grammatical and systems knowledge. They demonstrate understanding of language variation and change, and of how intercultural experience, technology, media and globalisation influence forms of communication.

Contexts of interaction

Learners use written and spoken Spanish to interact with peers, teachers and other Spanish speakers in immediate and local contexts relating to their own social and educational worlds. They interact with cultural resources and Spanish-speaking communities in a variety of countries through a range of online environments.

Texts and resources

Learners engage with a range of language-learning texts and support materials, such as textbooks, DVDs, apps, media texts and online materials. They also draw increasingly on texts produced for Spanish-speaking communities, such as short stories, songs, poems, newspaper reports, films, video clips, blogs and social media texts.

Features of Spanish language use

Learners recognise and approximate the pronunciation, rhythms and intonation patterns of more extended phrases and compound sentences. They become more fluent and accurate in both spoken and written language production. They gain more control of grammatical and textual elements. They use simple tenses (present, imperfect, preterite, future and conditional), and compound tenses conjugated with haber (present perfect). They recognise the form and function of pronouns and expand their understanding to include direct and indirect object pronouns.

Learners use expressive and descriptive language to talk about feelings and experiences. They develop understanding of the nature of both translation and interpretation, noticing the relationship between language, texts and culture. A balance is maintained between activities that focus on language forms and structures and those that involve communicative tasks, performances and experiences. Tasks involve collaborative as well as independent language planning and performance, and development and strategic use of language and cultural resources. Learners analyse text more critically, identifying how language choices reflect perspectives and shape meaning. At this level, learners are developing understanding of the relationship between language, culture and identity. They identify how meaning-making and representation in a different language involve interpretation and personal response as well as literal translation and factual reporting. They explore the reciprocal nature of intercultural communication: how moving between different languages and cultural systems impacts on the learner’s ways of thinking and behaving; and how successful communication requires flexibility, awareness and openness to alternative ways. They develop the capacity to consider their own cultural practices through the eyes of others, and to communicate in interculturally appropriate ways.

Level of support

This stage of learning involves consolidation and progression. Learners are provided with new challenges and more independent learning experiences. Continued scaffolding, modelling and monitoring support these challenges. Students are supported to develop increasing autonomy as language learners and users, and to self-monitor and adjust language in response to their experience in different contexts. They analyse and reflect on texts and intercultural experiences through discussion, documenting and journalling. Continuing focused attention on grammatical and textual features supports learners’ development as text producers.

The role of English

Spanish is used in more extended and elaborated ways by both teacher and learners. English may be used for substantive discussion, elaboration, comparison, analysis and reflection.


Years 9 and 10 Content Descriptions

Socialising

Socialise and exchange and compare ideas and opinions in relation to issues relevant to their own lives and interests, such as relationships, events and aspirations

[Key concepts: friendship, relationships, values, youth culture; Key processes: interacting, comparing, responding] (ACLSPC019 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • expressing, comparing and explaining likes, dislikes and preferences, for example, Me gusta más el baloncesto que el fútbol, Me encanta la historia porque me parece interesante, Nuestro colegio es grandísimo, es el más grande de la ciudad. Lo que más me gusta hacer los fines de semana es chatear con mis amigos
  • corresponding with peers by using telephone/video calls, SMS or social media to build relationships and share views on aspects of young people’s lives such as friends, responsibilities, interests and aspirations
  • expressing hopes, opinions and ambitions, giving reasons for plans, for example, Espero aprobar los exámenes, Creo que ..., Pienso (+ infinitive), prefiero ...¿y tú?, Y vosotros ¿Qué opináis?, Estoy de acuerdo contigo, ¿Estáis de acuerdo?, En el futuro, me gustaría ser ...
  • sharing past experiences and significant events, such as holidays, special events or travel, for example, En mis vacaciones, primero fuimos a..., después ... Durante la segunda semana ... y entonces ... Fue fenomenal ... Al final ... Y ¿Qué tal tus vacaciones?
  • discussing personal views on topics such as acoso escolar, ideal de belleza and música, using expressions such as de ninguna manera...claro que sí... to link and elaborate ideas
Negotiate with peers to plan and take action on local and global issues and to engage in different forms of spoken, written and digital transactions

[Key concepts: environment, human rights, fairness; Key processes: discussing, debating, commenting, comparing] (ACLSPC020 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • participating in collaborative planning and decision-making, such as arranging an event or campaign to promote awareness of an issue such as recycling, using persuasive and descriptive language in spoken, written and digital modes of presentation, for example, posters, stimulus questions, statistics
    • Sustainability
  • producing action-oriented resources such as websites, posters or online features on issues related to the Spanish-speaking world, incorporating declarative language and argument, for example, ¿Qué creéis que tenemos que hacer para ..., creo que primero deberíamos escribir..., sugiero que terminemos, es evidente que…
  • creating promotional and informative texts to support fundraising activities, such as humanitarian initiatives in Spanish-speaking countries
  • planning real or virtual activities such as Spanish-language forums, for example by composing and rehearsing possible contributions or questions
Plan and evaluate collaborative activities and tasks that involve expressing and comparing opinions

[Key concepts: community, responsibility; Key processes: expressing, representing, discussing] (ACLSPC021 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • using appropriate discussion protocols such as acknowledging others’ opinions, responding to others’ contributions, and elaborating and extending topics, for example, Perdona, pero no estoy de acuerdo contigo porque …, me parece mejor … ¿qué os/les parece si…?
  • using reflective and evaluative language to discuss the experience of learning and using Spanish and to evaluate resources such as textbooks, websites or electronic dictionaries, for example, Creo que... porque, Prefiero…, Es más útil que…, Tiene menos …que, En primer lugar, creo... Ahora creo que…, No estoy de acuerdo
  • participating in class discussion by offering own opinions (Me parece que…), eliciting and reflecting on those of others (¿Qué les parece?), and agreeing (¡Qué buena idea!) or disagreeing (No me parece una buena idea)

Informing

Analyse and interpret information, ideas and perspectives obtained from a range of spoken, written and digital texts and present these in new forms

[Key concepts: perspective, representation; Key processes: selecting, analysing, interpreting] (ACLSPC022 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • analysing and comparing information obtained from different sources on topics of social and cultural interest, such as el cine latinoamericano comtemporáneo, el efecto del turismo en las tortugas de las Islas Galápagos or los refugiados en España, and summarising and presenting information to peers in conversation or on a shared website
  • synthesising and summarising a variety of texts such as announcements, reports, interviews and conversations on topical issues such as Las corridas de toros or La influencia del internet en la música, classifying and cross-referencing key ideas and associated language for use in own texts
  • identifying perspectives and context in texts such as articles and reports by distinguishing between facts and opinion, for example, by identifying the author, intended audience and purpose of a text
  • researching and classifying social, historical and cultural aspects of Spanish-speaking communities by gathering information from a range of sources, including personal commentaries by Spanish-speaking peers and adults
Organise and present critical perspectives on information obtained from different sources to a variety of audiences

[Key concepts: audience, perspective, fact, opinion, interconnections; Key processes: constructing, presenting, reporting] (ACLSPC023 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • Sustainability
  • researching, presenting and taking a position on questions relating to contemporary topics such as Los efectos de las redes sociales en la vida de los jóvenes
  • producing a brochure to identify aspects of their city/town/region likely to be of interest to Spanish-speaking visitors of the same age
  • presenting a personal or shared perspective on topics such as fashion, music, cinema or social media, using formats such as displays, online posts or oral presentations to provide critical or explanatory commentary
  • researching and presenting information about social and environmental issues affecting Spanish-speaking regions of the world, for example, consecuencias de la deforestación en el Amazonas
    • Sustainability

Creating

Respond to a range of imaginative oral, print and digital texts by interpreting or modifying them to express own ideas and feelings

[Key concept: imagination; Key processes: comparing, connecting, relating] (ACLSPC024 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Ethical Understanding
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • using examples of popular rap forms to create and perform versions that express their own feelings and values
  • expressing individual responses to imaginative and expressive multimedia texts, including performance and visual arts, using modelled and scaffolded language, for example, demasiado triste, ¡tan cómico!, horrible, era muy entretenido porque ..., me fascina la manera de ..., me encantó cuando ...fue trágico el final de ..., para mí las imágenes representan…, personalmente prefiero…
  • engaging with rhythm, intonation and imagery to create mood and meaning in own poems, songs or performances, experimenting with language, voice and gesture to create specific effects
  • responding to imaginative texts by modifying key elements, for example, incorporating a new character or event, creating a different mood, parodying an advertisement or devising a new ending to a story
Express creative ideas and imagined experiences that relate to the cultures of Spanish-speaking communities using a variety of texts

[Key concepts: creativity, adventure, expression; Key processes: creating, expressing, experimenting, entertaining] (ACLSPC025 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • reinterpreting familiar stories or fictional characters, referencing cultural characteristics while creating new situations or different effects, for example, incorporating alternative text into popular cartoons such as Mafalda
  • composing adapted or simplified versions of classic stories such as Caperucita Verde or Los doce enanos for a younger audience
  • composing performance texts such as skits, raps or poems to amuse, entertain and engage other learners of Spanish
  • creating a video clip or digital story involving imaginary persona or avatar in a Spanish-speaking fantasy world, incorporating communicative styles and behaviours observed in texts from Spanish-speaking contexts

Translating

Translate texts from Spanish into English and vice versa, noticing and explaining words or expressions that are culturally specific and difficult to translate

[Key concepts: equivalence, representation; Key processes: translating, interpreting, comparing, explaining] (ACLSPC026 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • analysing Spanish translations of familiar English-language texts, identifying aspects that got ‘lost in translation’, for example, comparing the English subtitles of a movie dubbed in Spanish with the original English speaking version
  • translating texts such as signs, product instructions, notices or advertisements, comparing versions and considering how to convey culturally embedded references and concepts
  • evaluating the effectiveness of electronic translators, for example, by doing a back translation of a well-known text
  • identifying challenges associated with the translation of simple texts such as short letters or conversations, deciding whether different information is required in the translated version, for example, deciding if ‘you’ should become tú, usted or vosotros, depending on the social relationship being conveyed in the letter or exchange
Create bilingual texts such as displays, explanatory or promotional material or performances for immediate and virtual environments

[Key concepts: interpretation, bilinguality; Key processes: constructing, composing, explaining] (ACLSPC027 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • providing bilingual captions that represent cultural elements or references to accompany images from the Spanish-speaking world or from regional Australia, for example, los nazarenos en las procesiones de Semana Santa, el sombrero mexicano y el sombrero de los corchos australiano, el ‘vegemite’ y las tortillas españolas, el canguro y el cóndor, el rodeo y los toros, bailes y ceremonias indígenas
  • producing bilingual instructional or explanatory texts such as glossaries, for example to explain the rules of Australian games, activities or sports, such as cricket, netball, Australian Rules football, bushwalking or surf lifesaving
  • creating and contributing to a shared online bilingual word bank of Spanish and English colloquial and idiomatic words that are difficult to translate, for example, comadre, compadre, qué metida de pata; ‘schoolies’, ‘School of the Air’, ‘sickie’
  • performing a virtual guided tour for intending exchange students, including dramatisations of potential miscommunication between Spanish and English speakers

Reflecting

Consider own reactions when engaging with Spanish speakers and resources and how these may reflect aspects of own language and culture

[Key concepts: standpoints, intraculturality; Key processes: making connections, questioning assumptions, reflecting] (ACLSPC028 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • keeping a record such as a journal, log or online posting of critical incidents and observations in the course of intercultural language learning, such as breakdowns or breakthroughs in communication, and considering why or how they occurred and were repaired
  • finding examples of how language reflects cultural concepts and values across the Spanish-speaking world, for example, religious references in sayings such as Al que madruga Diós le ayuda, Bendito sea … Adiós; and changes to language forms that reflect changes in social values, such as the adoption of some feminine forms of professional titles (La doctora/el doctor, la abogada/el abogado, la jefa/el jefe)
  • recognising differences in the nature and function of some elements of communication in Spanish compared to English, for example, the enjoyment of debate, disagreement and argument as social rather than confrontational activities, or greater directness in exchanges such as making requests using the direct imperative form
  • discussing how intercultural communication involves being flexible, responsive and open to differences in ways of communicating views or emotions, for example, the less explicit expression of appreciation or thanks in Spanish, variation in attitudes to time
Consider and discuss the relationship between language, culture and identity

[Key concepts: identity, culture, communication; Key processes: observing, connecting, reflecting, explaining] (ACLSPC029 - Scootle )

  • Literacy
  • Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Capability
  • Critical and Creative Thinking
  • Personal and Social Capability
  • Intercultural Understanding
  • reflecting on own sense of identity, considering whether it is fixed or fluid, for example, whether they communicate and present themselves in different ways, in different contexts or with different people
  • examining how identity is expressed through language, with reference to languages spoken by themselves, their peers, family or community members
  • composing a ‘cultural ID profile’ to share online with Spanish-speaking friends, making decisions about what points of information will be of most interest
  • monitoring own ways of communicating and expressing their sense of identity in different contexts and interactions, including when using Spanish, noticing whether they have a different sense of themselves when using a different language
  • critically examining the impact of cultural stereotypes and expectations in relation to cultural identity and intercultural communication, for example, by reflecting on changes in perceptions of or attitudes towards other languages and cultures as a result of learning Spanish

Years 9 and 10 Achievement Standards

By the end of Year 10, students interact in written and spoken Spanish to communicate about personal experiences, relationships and aspirations, and broader local and global issues such as the environment, social media and tourism, including issues that pertain to Spanish-speaking countries. Learners interact with peers to make decisions, solve problems, and negotiate and plan action in response to issues. When interacting, they use both rehearsed and spontaneous language and appropriate protocols (for example, Perdona, pero no estoy de acuerdo contigo porque …, me parece mejor … ¿qué os parece si…?) to express and compare opinions, share perspectives, and express agreement or disagreement (for example, Me parece que…, ¿qué les parece?, Que buena idea, me opongo). They apply rules of pronunciation, stress and intonation to a range of sentence types. They locate, summarise and analyse information from a range of texts, and communicate different perspectives and information in a range of contexts using different modes of presentation. They respond to and create personal, descriptive, informative and imaginative texts for different purposes, audiences and contexts using appropriate Spanish writing conventions. They use grammatical elements including present, imperfect, past and future tenses, reflexive verbs, and the subjunctive mood to express emotion (for example, Como chocolate todos los días, Fui al parque ayer, Salíamos a bailar los fines de semana, Estudiaré informática en la universidad). They use appropriate forms of possessive adjectives in own language production, as well as cohesive devices and prepositions to create cohesion and interest. They use relative pronouns (for example, El programa que miraba era cómico), relative clauses (for example, Mi amigo chileno me ha dicho que quiere venir con nosotras al cine) and adverbial phrases (for example, a la derecha, con frecuencia) to extend and elaborate their written texts. They work in Spanish and English to translate and create bilingual texts, explaining words or expressions that are culturally specific such as tapas, adobe, vaquero, Vive en el quinto pino, … más largo que un día sin pan. They describe their own reactions in intercultural exchanges and explain how their own assumptions and identity influence their language use.

Students identify differences in accent and pronunciation across the Spanish-speaking world, such as the use ceceo and seseo in different regions and countries. They use metalanguage to explain features of language (formal and informal language) and grammar (for example, las formas negativas, el futuro próximo con el verbo ir, masculino, femenino, singular, plural), and for reflecting on the experience of Spanish language and culture learning. They identify relationships between parts of words (prefixes and suffixes) and stems of words (for example, desagradable, la camioneta, la reconciliación), and how word patterns connect words in semantic families (for example, mercado, mercancía, feliz, felicidad, felicitaciones). They analyse the textual features of a range of texts in different modes and identify how these shape responses and influence meaning. They give examples of how Spanish is used in a variety of ways to achieve different purposes in different contexts and for different audiences. Students describe changes in the role of Spanish as a global language and explain how language both influences and reflects culture. They know that Spanish is co-official with many other languages in a range of countries, such as Guaraní in Paraguay; Quechua in Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru; and Basque/Euskera, Catalan and Galician in Spain. They explain how meanings and interpretations vary according to the cultural assumptions that people bring to interactions, and consider how learning a second language provides the opportunity to view oneself from the perspectives of others.


Years 9 and 10 Work Sample Portfolios