Online Spanish AVE

 

 

Established by the Spanish government in 1991, the Instituto Cervantes is recognized as the worldwide authority in the teaching and testing of Spanish as a foreign language. Through its own schools and a network of officially authorized centers it offers Spanish courses and its DELE (Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera) examinations to students of the language around the world. The Instituto Britanico, a well established language school in Costa Rica, was the first Instituto Cervantes authorized examinations center in Central America. It has also been granted ‘Centro Asociado’ status, a seal of excellence bestowed on independent schools of Spanish which meet a range of exacting quality criteria.

 

A new development recently offered by Instituto Cervantes is an option to study the language and to prepare for the exams through courses online. This service is known as the ‘Spanish Virtual Classroom’ or AVE (Aula Virtual de Español).

 

The AVE is an interactive platform specially designed for studying Spanish online, combining state of the art technology with the latest language teaching methods. It uses internet resources for training purposes, putting innovative and accessible materials at learners’ fingertips in a variety of enjoyable and stimulating formats.

 

 

The course price includes one-to-one tutorials via Skype with the same trained, qualified teachers of Spanish who teach our classes at the Instituto. All students who successfully finish a course are awarded a certificate.

 

So that customers can see the on-screen presentation and experience the interactive elements of the courses before deciding to go ahead, free samples of courses are available online: go to www.ave.cervantes.es, choosing the option Course Sample.

 

 

Students interested in formalizing their studies with an official internationally recognized certificate can take a DELE examination at a level that corresponds to their course of study. Examinations are offered on our premises.

 

Preparation for certain DELE examinations is one of the options offered by the AVE. The preparation courses help students to familiarize themselves with the format of the examination and the techniques required to answer the questions.

 

Examinations are held three times a year in Costa Rica at our premises in San Pedro, San José. Enrolment and exam dates are published on our website (see below). Results are available 12 weeks after the exam.

 

 

The AVE courses are organized in the same way as the Instituto Cervantes’ classroom courses - dynamic, interactive, enjoyable and structured according to recognized international levels for language teaching. Each course takes 120 hours of online work to complete and includes 14 hours of one-to-one contact with your tutor. The course is very attractive and engaging on the screen, using multimedia to advance the skills of the student.

 

All four language skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking) are developed in parallel so that the student is able to communicate naturally. Materials from different sociocultural sources are used, such as the press, literature, cinema, and music, so that the courses provide a realistic reflection of Hispanic culture and society in all its rich variety.

 

With the AVE you do not study alone. Once you have enrolled, you will have online course companions who will collaborate with you on group tasks and each lesson includes at least three communicative exercises to be done with your companions and an end-of-lesson task in which students put into practice everything they have learned. Also, your course tutor will help you with your concerns, check your work, provide feedback, keep you motivated and give you practice. The lessons include an ongoing graphic adventure story in which students develop their skills interactively.

 

Each lesson has three tests that assess performance on the material already covered and there are also four exercises that are corrected by a tutor. Supplementary materials are included that allow students to consult and practice specific linguistic items, such as grammar, vocabulary, phonetics, and spelling.

 

A short online test at the beginning tells you at what level you should start studying.

 

Licenses are available in modules of one complete level and of half a level. The price includes both the online element and the tutorial support.

 

 

1. If you are connected to our website, click on the link to the AVE website. If not, go to www.ave.cervantes.es/ing.htm#prueba , and choose the option Placement Test. 2. Do the test to find your starting level. 3. With your starting level confirmed, choose the course you want to follow. 4. Choose the module you wish to pay for: 120, 100 or 30 hours. 5. Using the link provided on our website, send us an email to enroll. 6. You will be sent details for making a bank transfer. 7. Once the payment is received, your AVE license and password details will be sent to your email address, your account will be open and you’ll be ready to start.

 

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