1) Are the lessons in person or online?
Both options are available at Spanish Exeter. It is the student’s decision whether they want the lessons to be online, via Zoom, or in person, at my address: 23 Lloyds Crescent, Exeter, EX1 3JQ.
While one-to-one sessions can be booked either in person or online, group lessons are recommended to be in person, mainly due to the advantages of interaction and communication with the other members of the group.
2) Do I need to bring any material with me?
There is no need to bring anything specific for the lessons.
If you like taking notes, I would recommend bringing a notepad and a pen to write down comments during the session.
In the unlikely event that you need to bring anything with you, I will inform you with clear details.
3) How long is a lesson in Spanish Exeter?
The lessons are usually 1 hour long.
Level courses, typically with 4 people in each group, have sessions lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes.
4) Do I have to complete some homework before the lesson?
Spanish Exeter will not ask adult students to complete any homework, nor we will correct any gramatical activities in the class.
Alternatively, we highly recommend to do regular practice in between lessons, mainly in the format of reading and listening.
5) I want to be able to have a basic conversation in Spanish. How long will it take me to reach this level?
The answer is: it depends.
It mainly depends on your previous experience with the language and how much exposure you get in your own free time. In other words, it depends on how much time you invest in effecient practice, which primarily involves listening.
As a general guide, if you practise for around three hours per week over a period of two to three years (approximately 300 to 450 hours of practice in total), you should be able to interact with native speakers and hold basic conversations about topics such as the weather, restaurants, past experiences, future plans, and expectations.
This estimate is based on the Spanish Exeter´s experiences and the time observing learners' progress throughout the learning process.
6) How are the lessons ike in Spanish Exeter?
In every lesson, we use simple conversational questions to encourage verbal interaction. Depending on your level of comprehension, the questions will be either simpler or more complex.
For example, we might start with questions such as: What's your name?, Where do you live?, or Do you have a pet?
As your confidence and language skills develop, we progress to topics such as your town or city, family and friends, and what you did at the weekend. We also discuss things we enjoy, plans for the coming weekend, and past events such as holidays, days out, birthdays, and weddings.
If you are beyond this level, the warm-up part of the lesson focuses on catching up on the previous week, including work, family life, leisure activities, and future plans. The main part of the lesson involves discussing a topic agreed upon in the previous session and practising it throughout the week using videos, audio recordings, podcasts, or articles.
The objective is to build the confidence and knowledge needed to hold conversations with native speakers for as long as you wish.