Catalan

The USC Centre for Modern Languages offers Catalan courses to the university community and individuals over the age of 18, tailored to the A2 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR).

They are two courses, at levels A2.1 and A2.2, with a semester-based format, each lasting 50 hours, combining in-person sessions with guided independent work.

The course follows a communicative task-based approach, aiming for the integrated and meaningful development of essential language skills.

The overall objective of this course is to achieve a minimum level of competence that enables students to communicate in basic Catalan.

• It introduces the fundamental characteristics of Catalan, with particular emphasis on distinguishing phonetics and the essential lexical-grammatical knowledge needed to carry out basic communicative acts in everyday situations.
• Simultaneously, it considers the sociocultural context of the language.
• It provides access to information and resources to support the students’ future self-directed learning of Catalan, taking into account the introductory nature of the course and the challenges of learning the language outside of its linguistic domain.

In terms of assessment, the final grade is distributed as follows:

• Continuous assessment (40% / 50%): Classroom work and tasks / Classroom work and oral participation in A2.1 and A2.2, respectively
• Final exam (60% - 50% in A2.1 and A2.2, respectively)

The center also offers preparation courses for exams to obtain the intermediate (B) and proficiency (C) Catalan certificates from the Institut Ramon Llull. These courses are 50 hours long (20 hours in-person and 30 hours of guided independent work).

These courses combine attendance at in-person sessions, guidance from the teacher, student self-study, and self-learning materials. The focus is on working with exam models and developing the necessary skills and strategies to pass the exams.

To certify your Catalan language skills at USC, you have several options:

• Pass a course at the USC Centre for Modern Languages that completes a level of the CEFR.

• Provide a title or diploma recognized by the institution requiring certification.

• Take the exams from the Institut Ramon Llull, for which the Centre for Modern Languages serves as an exam center in Galicia.

In undergraduate studies at USC, credits can be recognized for transversal skills, such as language training activities.

Completing Catalan courses at the Centre for Modern Languages grants the right to earn ECTS credits in undergraduate studies, ranging from 3 ECTS for B1 level to 6 ECTS for C2 level.