SPANISH FIRST Tutorials

Our Academic Support Tutorials designed to assist First Year students of Spanish with their study of the language and the cultures of Spain and Latin America. They are called ’SPANISH FIRST’ Tutorials. ’FIRST’ stands for ’Forum for Investigating and Researching Spanish Themes’.

The SPANISH FIRST Tutorials are a way for First Year students to begin to explore the vast array of possible topics associated with the study of Spanish. They are also a means for First Year students to get advice and tips on learning the Spanish language, or on learning about anything to do with Spain or Latin America: culture, literature, history, current affairs, economics, cinema, geography, etc. – even including celebrity gossip!

The SPANISH FIRST Tutorials are conducted in English by Spanish lecturers in their role as Academic Support Tutors. All First Year students of Spanish have been assigned an Academic Support Tutor for this purpose.

The Academic Support Tutors in Spanish are as follows:

Each First Year student of Spanish must attend at least one SPANISH FIRST Tutorial in the course of the academic year.

Students are encouraged to attend more than one Tutorial, and to maintain contact with their Academic Support Tutor on an ongoing basis.

This is especially important if students have any difficulties in learning Spanish or have an interest in learning more about particular Spanish or Latin American topics or areas of study.

Students should feel free to contact their Academic Support Tutor at any time.

Either way, the Tutor will contact the student in due course and give him or her a day and time for a Tutorial. The student must attend this Tutorial, unless they have a timetabled class at the time indicated. If they have a scheduled class, they should explain this to the Tutor immediately (e.g., by email), and request an alternative time for the Tutorial from the Tutor.

There is a vast array of possible topics to explore and learn about in the course of the study of Spanish. Most obviously, this includes developing competence in the Spanish language to the point where students can communicate fluently in the language. Beyond that, however, students should bear in mind that 400 million people around the world use Spanish as their everyday language. The same number again are learning it as a second or foreign language. Spanish is the national language of more than one in every ten countries in the world as well as being the community language of 50 million people in the U.S.A.

This means the scope for exploring topics of relevance to Spanish is vast. Students are encouraged to find out about any aspect of life in the Spanish-speaking world that they may be interested in, whether that is music or history, literature or economics, Argentinean footballers or the love lives of Antonio Banderas or Penelope Cruz! The Academic Support Tutor will not necessarily be an expert on the particular topic that interests the student, but he or she will probably know something about it, and will certainly be able to assist the student to find out more or to explore the topic further. You might be surprised at the things we know about football and Penelope Cruz!

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