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A-level Spanish

I'm doing spanish for a-levels and my teacher said he teaches us by castillian spanish (the posh way almost). But I have an extremely strong mexican accent and I just can't switch haha. So I was just wondering if I would get marked down for this. I also wanted to know if it would be okay to use mexican or spanish slang since i know so many and can easily slide it into conversations . It would be more a native thing , because that's what the examiner partly wants right? Or would I get marked down for this also?
Original post by wemove
I'm doing spanish for a-levels and my teacher said he teaches us by castillian spanish (the posh way almost). But I have an extremely strong mexican accent and I just can't switch haha. So I was just wondering if I would get marked down for this. I also wanted to know if it would be okay to use mexican or spanish slang since i know so many and can easily slide it into conversations . It would be more a native thing , because that's what the examiner partly wants right? Or would I get marked down for this also?


Hi!
I have just finished A level Spanish. I’m not a native speaker, but there was someone in my class from Argentina, I know the accents aren’t the same but they did try to change their accent on certain words to be more ‘Spain Spanish’. But I do think it’s not a massive problem if your accent isn’t perfect, especially since most people that take it aren’t native, so the better your accent, the higher mark for that section, but it shouldn’t affect it too much.
Also, with the slang part, we were adviced not to use much slang. As well as the student from Argentina, there was someone from Spain and my teacher said that it was probably safer to stick with the general words and not slang, in case the examiner or marker doesn’t understand or use that slang. And I guess also because there isn’t any slang in textbooks or anything. I don’t know how much this would affect the exam. Probably more so with an IRP presentation than the general speaking exam, but it’s probably safer to avoid it altogether.
Hope this is helpful!
Any more questions I’d be glad to answer! 😊
Reply 2
Original post by Ljdf0072
Hi!
I have just finished A level Spanish. I’m not a native speaker, but there was someone in my class from Argentina, I know the accents aren’t the same but they did try to change their accent on certain words to be more ‘Spain Spanish’. But I do think it’s not a massive problem if your accent isn’t perfect, especially since most people that take it aren’t native, so the better your accent, the higher mark for that section, but it shouldn’t affect it too much.
Also, with the slang part, we were adviced not to use much slang. As well as the student from Argentina, there was someone from Spain and my teacher said that it was probably safer to stick with the general words and not slang, in case the examiner or marker doesn’t understand or use that slang. And I guess also because there isn’t any slang in textbooks or anything. I don’t know how much this would affect the exam. Probably more so with an IRP presentation than the general speaking exam, but it’s probably safer to avoid it altogether.
Hope this is helpful!
Any more questions I’d be glad to answer! 😊

Thank you so much!! Also what books/textbooks would you recommend that helped you? And how did you come across the film section (like what did you do for it :smile:) since this seems like the most daunting and the book :frown:?
Original post by wemove
Thank you so much!! Also what books/textbooks would you recommend that helped you? And how did you come across the film section (like what did you do for it :smile:) since this seems like the most daunting and the book :frown:?


As for textbooks, I would try to get reccommendations from your teacher, or look for the specific exam board textbook (mine was AQA).
I know you can buy revision guides, textbooks, and work books. It just depends on your preference, revisions guides are normally simpler put, textbooks are more detailed, and work books have lots of practice questions.
For the film, I did Ocho Apellidos Vascos, which was actually quite a nice choice, it’s a romantic type comedy about the differences between the north and south of Spain and the overall themes and topics are quite easier to take in and write about.
Then for the book we did the play Casa de Bernarda Alba. This one was a bit harder, the topics are much more detailed and deep, and harder to write about. The book follows a lady and her 6 (I think) daughters during mourning and how they want to leave the house and get married, it involves a lot of repression, power, sexism, and classism. But once you get the story, writing about it becomes a lot easier.
As long as you put in a fair amount of time to get to know the plots, themes, symbolism, characters, and quotes of them, writing about any questions that comes up should be pretty simple.
Hope this helps!
Any other questions I’d be glad to answer! 😊
Reply 4
Original post by Ljdf0072
As for textbooks, I would try to get reccommendations from your teacher, or look for the specific exam board textbook (mine was AQA).
I know you can buy revision guides, textbooks, and work books. It just depends on your preference, revisions guides are normally simpler put, textbooks are more detailed, and work books have lots of practice questions.
For the film, I did Ocho Apellidos Vascos, which was actually quite a nice choice, it’s a romantic type comedy about the differences between the north and south of Spain and the overall themes and topics are quite easier to take in and write about.
Then for the book we did the play Casa de Bernarda Alba. This one was a bit harder, the topics are much more detailed and deep, and harder to write about. The book follows a lady and her 6 (I think) daughters during mourning and how they want to leave the house and get married, it involves a lot of repression, power, sexism, and classism. But once you get the story, writing about it becomes a lot easier.
As long as you put in a fair amount of time to get to know the plots, themes, symbolism, characters, and quotes of them, writing about any questions that comes up should be pretty simple.
Hope this helps!
Any other questions I’d be glad to answer! 😊

Thank you so much!!! 😊😊
Original post by wemove
I'm doing spanish for a-levels and my teacher said he teaches us by castillian spanish (the posh way almost). But I have an extremely strong mexican accent and I just can't switch haha. So I was just wondering if I would get marked down for this. I also wanted to know if it would be okay to use mexican or spanish slang since i know so many and can easily slide it into conversations . It would be more a native thing , because that's what the examiner partly wants right? Or would I get marked down for this also?


Hola, I'm an A-level Spanish teacher and it annoys me to hear teachers adopting or preferring mainland Spanish pronounciation because , like you say, it is more posh. There's a myth regarding the Spanish spoken in Salamanca, Valladolid, or Madrid. Just because Spanish was born in that region doesn't mean that they have the best Spanish. No variety of Spanish is better than others. I'm a Canarian teacher of Spanish, quite similiar to the Venezuelan accent and it's not only the accent that makes a good speaker but their command of the grammar, vocabulary, etc. There are people in mainland Spain that make terrible gramnar mistakes but they still think they speak the best variety of Spanish. Don't be fooled: no variety of Spanish is better than others if spoken correctly. All exam boards are happy to have exams in any Spanish variety. I've conducted A-Level exams and I've seen Colombian, Mexican examiners , etc, doing a wonderful job.
Reply 6
Original post by DeliaMoreno
Hola, I'm an A-level Spanish teacher and it annoys me to hear teachers adopting or preferring mainland Spanish pronounciation because , like you say, it is more posh. There's a myth regarding the Spanish spoken in Salamanca, Valladolid, or Madrid. Just because Spanish was born in that region doesn't mean that they have the best Spanish. No variety of Spanish is better than others. I'm a Canarian teacher of Spanish, quite similiar to the Venezuelan accent and it's not only the accent that makes a good speaker but their command of the grammar, vocabulary, etc. There are people in mainland Spain that make terrible gramnar mistakes but they still think they speak the best variety of Spanish. Don't be fooled: no variety of Spanish is better than others if spoken correctly. All exam boards are happy to have exams in any Spanish variety. I've conducted A-Level exams and I've seen Colombian, Mexican examiners , etc, doing a wonderful job.

thank you!!
Reply 7
Original post by DeliaMoreno
Hola, I'm an A-level Spanish teacher and it annoys me to hear teachers adopting or preferring mainland Spanish pronounciation because , like you say, it is more posh. There's a myth regarding the Spanish spoken in Salamanca, Valladolid, or Madrid. Just because Spanish was born in that region doesn't mean that they have the best Spanish. No variety of Spanish is better than others. I'm a Canarian teacher of Spanish, quite similiar to the Venezuelan accent and it's not only the accent that makes a good speaker but their command of the grammar, vocabulary, etc. There are people in mainland Spain that make terrible gramnar mistakes but they still think they speak the best variety of Spanish. Don't be fooled: no variety of Spanish is better than others if spoken correctly. All exam boards are happy to have exams in any Spanish variety. I've conducted A-Level exams and I've seen Colombian, Mexican examiners , etc, doing a wonderful job.

Hi great advice! Do you know whether AQA or exam boards would mark you down for not using accents (tildes) when writing e.g in paper 1 and 2. I sometimes forget to use accents or i'm inconsistent with them. My teachers advised to use accents where possible but that it shouldn't be too much of a big deal. What are your thoughts? I'm Native level Spanish and have been getting top grades in mocks. Have paper 1 in a week!
Original post by JLars
Hi great advice! Do you know whether AQA or exam boards would mark you down for not using accents (tildes) when writing e.g in paper 1 and 2. I sometimes forget to use accents or i'm inconsistent with them. My teachers advised to use accents where possible but that it shouldn't be too much of a big deal. What are your thoughts? I'm Native level Spanish and have been getting top grades in mocks. Have paper 1 in a week!

Hola, JLars,

I'd say: if the message is clear, I'd forgive you (exam boards do). But see how different hablara or hablará are, just to mention one example. There are errors I wouldn´t like to see as they hurt my eyes but, yes, your teacher is right. Try to use them though.
Mucha suerte
Reply 9
Original post by DeliaMoreno
Hola, JLars,

I'd say: if the message is clear, I'd forgive you (exam boards do). But see how different hablara or hablará are, just to mention one example. There are errors I wouldn´t like to see as they hurt my eyes but, yes, your teacher is right. Try to use them though.
Mucha suerte

Muchas gracias! I’ll try my best not to create eye sores hahaha. All the best
Holaaa, yo soy de argentina y bueno tengo el mismo problema. Pero tranquilo/a, el exam board dijo reiteradas veces que tienen en cuenta tu nacionalidad y el contexto, entonces si en vez de decir "beber agua" decís "tomar agua", como se dice en argentina por ejemplo, está todo bien.
En el oral no hay ningun problema con eso. Durante la clase usaba el "vos" sin problema jajaja. Lo que si pueden resultar dificiles son las estructuras gramaticales, tenes que usar el subjuntivo, frases introductorias como "Es innegable que" "Me ha sorprendido que" y cosas asi... Te recomiendo que durante Paper 2 (no se cual es tu exam board) que es de los ensayos, utilices mas expresiones "españolas", que es considerado sophisticated language y no utilices slang porque no lo van a entender (a mi me pasa eso).

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