Spanish teaching for specific purposes: basic suggestions for the design of a business Spanish course (level B1)

Abstract

We have chosen the learning of Spanish for specific purposes as the main theme of this paper, taking into account the growing demand for Spanish on a global scale due to the globalization of the world economy, which has also aroused interest in the development of Spanish courses oriented towards the business world. Likewise, the objectives of this paper are: to draw an inventory of some of the main research lines on Spanish for professional purposes, to provide some terminological clarifications of specific purposes and their classification, to deal with the specialized training designed for Spanish teachers working on this specific area and, subsequently, to offer some basic suggestions for the design of a Spanish course oriented towards the world of business. Our proposal is focused on the course objectives (general and specific), the skills to be developed by the students, as well as the specific content. For this
purpose, we follow the guidelines of the Common European Framework of Reference for the Teaching and Learning of Languages and the Curriculum of the
Cervantes Institute.