Spanish Language I

CB1. No prior knowledge of Spanish is required.

CB2. Reading and writing competence in Portuguese appropriate for higher education study.

CB3. Basic digital competences to access institutional platforms, consult learning materials, submit assignments, and make audio or video recordings.

ME1. Communicative and action-oriented approach: use of Spanish to carry out tasks related to everyday life, higher education and the initial performance of Executive Assistance duties.

ME2. Interactive instruction: brief presentation and systematisation of linguistic, functional and sociocultural content, accompanied by guided questions and immediate practice.

ME3. Task-based learning: resolution of communicative situations related to customer service, schedule management, reservations, travel, visitor reception and basic administrative tasks.

ME4. Simulations and role plays: making telephone calls, receiving visitors, arranging appointments, providing customer service and engaging in other professional interactions.

ME5. Cooperative learning: pair and small-group work, with allocation of roles, negotiation of decisions, presentation of outputs and individual accountability.

ME6. Guided production of professional genres: completing forms and writing notes, messages, emails, confirmations, invitations and requests for information.

ME7. Formative assessment: teacher feedback, peer feedback, self-assessment and revision of work based on explicit criteria.

ME8. Use of digital technologies: consultation of language resources, recording of oral productions, document sharing and revision of tasks, in accordance with the rules governing the use of artificial intelligence established in this curricular unit specification.

The curricular unit develops elementary communication skills in Spanish, focusing on everyday, academic and professional situations related to Executive Assistance. Progression begins with A1-level performance and is oriented towards the consolidation of A2-level performance, through a communicative, intercultural and action-oriented approach.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of the curricular unit, the student will be able to:

LO1. Understand general and specific information in simple oral and written messages related to everyday, academic and professional situations.

LO2. Produce short oral and written messages to establish contacts, introduce people and organisations, organise schedules, welcome visitors and carry out basic administrative tasks.

LO3. Interact in frequent communicative situations within the field of Executive Assistance, using appropriate courtesy formulas and registers according to the interlocutor and the situation.

LO4. Apply grammatical structures, vocabulary, pronunciation and discourse conventions corresponding to CEFR levels A1/A2.

LO5. Use compensation, self-correction and autonomous learning strategies when preparing, carrying out and reviewing tasks.

LO6. Recognise sociocultural and intercultural differences relevant to communication in Spanish-speaking contexts.

Competences to be developed

CD1. Communicative competence: understand, produce and exchange simple oral and written messages, including forms, schedules, timetables, messages, emails, reservations, requests, instructions and customer service interactions.

CD2. Linguistic competence: use grammatical structures, vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling and connectors appropriate to A1/A2 levels in communicative tasks.

CD3. Sociocultural and intercultural competence: recognise the diversity of the Hispanic world and adapt forms of address, courtesy conventions, schedules, behaviours and professional conventions to different contexts.

CD4. Strategic and learning competence: use repetition, reformulation, circumlocution, requests for clarification, self-assessment, peer feedback and self-correction to maintain and improve communication.

CD5. Digital and ethical competence: use dictionaries, glossaries, platforms, recordings and digital tools judiciously, respecting the established rules governing the use of artificial intelligence and authorship of tasks.

PT. Cross-cutting component: spelling, pronunciation, intonation, learning strategies, digital competence and the responsible use of technological and artificial intelligence resources.

P1. Getting to know one another in the Hispanic world

P1.1. Functional content: greeting and saying goodbye; introducing oneself and others; asking for and providing personal and professional information; identifying countries, cities, languages and nationalities; selecting appropriate forms of address.

P1.2. Grammatical content: present tense of ser, llamarse, tener, vivir, estudiar and trabajar; interrogatives; articles; gender and number; personal and reflexive pronouns; conjunctions y and e.

P1.3. Vocabulary: alphabet, numbers, contact details, countries, capitals, nationalities, languages, professions, job titles and courtesy expressions.

P1.4. Sociocultural and intercultural content: map of the Hispanic world; basic diversity of the Spanish language; greetings; interpersonal distance; use of tú, usted, vosotros and ustedes; first names, surnames and titles.

P2. People, relationships and professional environments

P2.1. Functional content: describing people, roles, professional qualities, clothing, departments, spaces and objects; locating people and materials; expressing existence, possession, obligation and possibility.

P2.2. Grammatical content: ser, estar and hay; adjectives; possessives and demonstratives; quantifiers; prepositions and adverbs of place; tener que, hay que, deber and poder + infinitive.

P2.3. Vocabulary: physical appearance, personality, skills, professional relationships, clothing, departments, furniture, equipment and office supplies.

P2.4. Sociocultural and intercultural content: dress codes; degrees of formality; relationships between colleagues and managers; organisation and use of workspaces.

P3. Routines, timetables and schedules

P3.1. Functional content: describing routines; stating times, dates and frequency; organising a schedule; arranging, confirming, changing or cancelling appointments; answering telephone calls and taking messages.

P3.2. Grammatical content: present tense of regular, irregular and reflexive verbs; expressions of frequency; temporal prepositions; estar + gerund; ir a + infinitive.

P3.3. Vocabulary: days, months, seasons, parts of the day, professional activities, calendar, schedule, telephone expressions, weather and leisure.

P3.4. Sociocultural and intercultural content: working and business hours; working days and schedules; punctuality; holiday periods; mealtimes and festive calendars.

P4. Hospitality, food and visitor services

P4.1. Functional content: inviting, accepting or declining invitations; expressing likes and preferences; ordering and recommending food; booking a table or accommodation; welcoming visitors; requesting services and responding to simple needs.

P4.2. Grammatical content: gustar, encantar, preferir, querer, poder and necesitar; comparatives; direct and indirect object pronouns in frequently used structures; affirmative imperative; courtesy expressions.

P4.3. Vocabulary: food, drinks, meals, menus, catering and restaurants, prices, payment methods, hotels, reception, facilities, services and simple complaints.

P4.4. Sociocultural and intercultural content: mealtimes and meal composition; tapas and social practices; hospitality; table manners; payment methods and customer service in Spain and Hispanic American contexts.

P5. The city, mobility, travel and basic administrative tasks

P5.1. Functional content: asking for and giving directions; buying tickets; planning journeys; making and confirming reservations; completing forms; making requests; reporting a simple problem; writing brief emails.

P5.2. Grammatical content: imperative and expressions for giving directions; present perfect tense; indefinite pronouns and determiners; request structures with querer and poder; connectors y, pero, porque, por eso and primero, después, finalmente.

P5.3. Vocabulary: city, buildings, transport, station, airport, accommodation, itineraries, tickets, reservations, invoices, orders, discounts and email correspondence.

P5.4. Sociocultural and intercultural content: urban mobility; behaviour in public spaces; travel and professional journeys; customer service conventions; basic structure of a formal email.**

Students may opt for continuous assessment or assessment by examination. In all examination periods, both a written component and an oral component are compulsory. A minimum mark of 9.5 is required in each of these components, and the final mark must be equal to or higher than 9.5.

Continuous assessment

MA1. Portfolio of microtasks and self-assessment. This component accounts for 20% of the final mark and includes oral and written microtasks completed individually, in pairs or in teams, weighted at 15%, as well as self-assessment activities carried out before and after the teaching units, weighted at 5%. Marks are awarded individually.

MA2. Written component. This component accounts for 40% of the final mark and includes individual reading comprehension, 5%; individual language use, 5%; individual written production, 15%; and written interaction in pairs or groups of three, 15%.

MA3. Oral component. This component accounts for 40% of the final mark and includes individual listening comprehension, 5%; individual oral production, 20%; and oral interaction in pairs or groups of three, 15%, with individual marking.

Final mark formula: FM = 0.20 × MA1 + 0.40 × MA2 + 0.40 × MA3

Pass requirements. A pass requires a minimum mark of 9.5 in MA2, a minimum mark of 9.5 in MA3 and a final mark equal to or higher than 9.5.

Attendance and individual marking. Continuous assessment requires attendance at a minimum of 12 of the 15 sessions, corresponding to 80%. Attendance does not replace completion of the assessment tasks. In tasks completed in pairs or teams, marks are awarded individually and take into account the performance effectively demonstrated by each student.

Assessment by examination, resit examination period and special examination period

MA4. Written component. In assessment by examination, during the resit examination period and the special examination period, this component accounts for 50% of the final mark. Its internal weighting comprises individual reading comprehension, 15%; individual language use, 15%; individual written production, 35%; and individual written interaction, 35%.

MA5. Oral component. This component accounts for 50% of the final mark. Its internal weighting comprises individual listening comprehension, 20%; individual oral production, 40%; and oral interaction in pairs or groups of three, 40%.

Final mark formula: FM = 0.50 × MA4 + 0.50 × MA5

Pass requirements. A pass requires a minimum mark of 9.5 in MA4, a minimum mark of 9.5 in MA5 and a final mark equal to or higher than 9.5. A student who does not achieve the minimum mark in one of the components is required to retake only that component in the next applicable examination period within the same academic year.

Assessment criteria

Listening and reading comprehension. Assessment considers the identification of general and specific information, the selection of relevant information and the appropriate interpretation of communicative intent.

Written production and interaction. Assessment focuses on task fulfilment, appropriateness to the genre and addressee, organisation, linguistic accuracy, lexical range, cohesion and intelligibility of the message.

Oral production and interaction. Assessment considers task fulfilment, communicative appropriateness, fluency, linguistic accuracy, pronunciation and intelligibility, turn-taking management, and the ability to respond and reformulate.

Microtasks and self-assessment. Assessment considers effective completion, progression, application of feedback, autonomy, individual responsibility, and the ability to identify difficulties and strategies for improvement.

Attendance and special student status

Special student status. Working students and students covered by other legally recognised special statuses are exempt from the attendance requirement, in accordance with the applicable regulations, but must complete all compulsory assessment components.

Replacement of in-class microtasks for students with special status. In-class microtasks may be replaced by equivalent individual tasks defined by the lecturer and submitted within the established deadlines. The written and oral assessment components remain compulsory.

Retention of marks and grade improvement

Retention of marks. A mark equal to or higher than 9.5 obtained in one component may be retained for subsequent examination periods within the same academic year, unless otherwise stipulated by the applicable regulations.

Grade improvement. Grade improvement is carried out in accordance with the applicable institutional regulations. Where authorised, it applies to the components defined for the relevant examination period, and the mark determined in accordance with those regulations shall prevail.

Guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence

Microtasks completed in class. Level 0: the use of generative artificial intelligence tools is not permitted, unless expressly authorised by the lecturer for a specific learning activity.

Preparatory tasks completed outside the classroom. Use is restricted and permitted only when authorised, particularly for vocabulary consultation, generation of examples, pronunciation practice, initial organisation of ideas or preliminary revision. Students must verify all suggestions and assume authorship of the version submitted.

MA2, MA3, MA4 and MA5. Level 0 applies; therefore, the use of generative artificial intelligence, machine translation tools, advanced writing assistants or other unauthorised resources is not permitted during assessments.

Declaration of artificial intelligence use. In tasks where its use is authorised, students must identify the tool used, its purpose, the relevant prompts, the changes made and the procedures adopted to verify linguistic and factual accuracy.

Unauthorised use. Any use of artificial intelligence that does not comply with these rules will be dealt with in accordance with the institutional assessment regulations and the applicable academic integrity rules.

Where there is a substantiated suspicion of academic misconduct identified during the marking of an assessment, the student will be required to undertake an oral assessment to verify the knowledge and competences demonstrated. This verification will be conducted by a panel comprising the lecturer responsible for the curricular unit and two additional lecturers from the same academic area. If the student is unable to demonstrate the knowledge and competences reflected in the written assessment, that assessment will be annulled.

NAO