You are doing something RIGHT NOW! This tense is called the present progressive.  In English, we add the ending -ing to verbs to indicate it is something you are doing right now.  In Spanish, there are two steps to form the present progressive.  Many current events are being described right now and use the present progressive to indicate this. ACTFL StandardsType the standard code and description here. Communication: Interpersonal Communication, Interpretive Communication, and Presentational CommunicationComparisons: Language ComparisonsLearning TargetI can write a short article on a current event.Habits of MindThinking flexiblyCritical Thinking SkillInternalize

This course is the first intermediate-level course in Spanish, with a focus on grammar review, additional vocabulary, writing of essays in Spanish and enhancement of cultural awareness. Group activities and projects, and conversation are emphasized. There are detailed simulation activities, readings about literature and art from Latin America and Spain, activities with music videos and interviews, and viewings of recent films such as El espinazo del diablo, Juana la loca, and María llena eres de gracia. Students also participate in the MITUPV Exchange project, a multimedia-centered Web site that deals with university life at MIT, the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia in Spain, and other universities.

Students will learn vocabulary related to celebrations and the stages of life, personal relationships, health and medical conditions and parts of the body, the car and its accessories, computers and electronic products, the parts of the house and household chores and table settings. Students will learn grammatical structures that support sentence formation such as irregular preterits, verbs that change meaning in the preterit, relative pronouns, čqu_? and čcuˆl?, the imperfect tense, constructions with se, adverbs, distinguishing between the preterit and the imperfect tenses, por and para, stressed possessive adjectives and pronouns, formal commands, the present subjunctive tense and the subjunctive with verbs of will and influence.Creative Commons License

Students will learn vocabulary related to transportation and lodging, days of the week, months, seasons, weather expressions, clothing, colors, daily routine, personal hygiene, sequencing expressions, foods, meals and adjectives that describe food. Students will learn grammatical structures that support sentence formation such as estar with conditions and emotions, the present progressive tense, the uses of ser and estar, direct object nouns and pronouns, numbers 101 and higher, the preterit tense of regular verbs, stem changing verbs and ser and ir, indirect object pronouns, demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, reflexive verbs, indefinite and negative words, the preterit of ser and ir, gustar and verbs like gustar, double object pronouns, saber and conocer, and comparisons and superlatives.

Completion of the study of the first year sequence of basic skills. This course was formerly known as Spanish 101. Prerequisite: none. Students will learn vocabulary related to greetings and farewells, courtesy expressions, college courses, professions, family relationships, pastimes, city places, numbers, days of the week, months and how to tell time. Students learn grammatical structures that support sentence formation, such as nouns and articles; descriptive and possessive adjectives; the present tense of ser, estar, tener, venir, ir, ver and oÍr; the present tense of regular _ar, _er and _ir verbs; stem changing verbs (e-ie, e-i and o-ue); verbs with irregular yo forms (hacer, poner, salir, suponer and traer); and question formation.