About the AP Spanish Language and Culture Course The AP Spanish Language and Culture course emphasizes communication (understanding and being understood by others) by applying interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational skills in real-life situations. This includes vocabulary usage, language control, communication strategies, and cultural awareness. The AP Spanish Language and Culture course strives not to overemphasize grammatical accuracy at the expense of communication. To best facilitate the study of language and culture, the course is taught almost exclusively in Spanish. The AP Spanish Language and Culture course engages students in an exploration of culture in both contemporary and historical contexts. The course develops students’ awareness and appreciation of cultural products (e.g., tools, books, music, laws, conventions, institutions); practices (patterns of social interactions within a culture); and perspectives (values, attitudes, and assumptions). College Course Equivalent The AP Spanish Language and Culture Course is approximately equivalent to an upper-intermediate college or university course in Spanish language and culture. Prerequisites There are no prerequisites; however, students are typically in their fourth year of high school–level Spanish language study. In the case of native or heritage speakers, there may be a different pathway of study leading to this course.
Course Framework Components Overview This course framework provides a clear and detailed description of the course requirements necessary for student success. The framework specifies what students must know, be able to do, and understand to qualify for college credit or placement. The course framework includes the following essential components:
1 SKILLS At the core of the AP Spanish Language and Culture course are course skills identifying what students should know and be able to do to succeed in the course. Students should develop and apply the described skills on a regular basis over the span of the course.
2 THEMES The course is based on six required course themes that help teachers integrate language, content, and culture into a series of lessons and activities. Within each theme are recommended contexts and overarching essential questions that engage students, guide their classroom investigations, and promote the use of language in a variety of contexts.
3 MODES Foundational to the course are the three modes of communication: Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational, as defined in ACTFL’s World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages. Throughout the course, students demonstrate their abilities in the interpretive mode by engaging with written, print, visual, audiovisual, and audio texts; in the interpersonal mode by speaking with and writing to others; and in the presentational mode by speaking to and writing for an audience.
4 TASK MODELS Each unit in the course features several of the task models that students will encounter on the exam, which build in difficulty and complexity over time to the level that matches the exam’s expectations. These task models include nine different types of stimuli with questions that address interpretive print and audio communication, and four free-response tasks that address the interpersonal and presentational modes.