Description

The Spanish as a Foreign Language Teacher Training Course is a pedagogical and literary update course for teachers of Spanish as a foreign language (ELE) in which various aspects related to teaching and learning processes are addressed: the importance of attention and emotions in learning, working with digital resources in the classroom, and the development of intercultural competence.

Target Audience

TheSpanish as a Foreign Language Teacher Training Course is designed for foreign Spanish teachers from secondary schools, universities, and private centers who want to expand their existing repertoire of teaching techniques and tools for their classroom work, while at the same time updating their knowledge of the language and Hispanic cultures.

Future teachers who want to start teaching Spanish as a second or foreign language can also join this course. This course offers them the opportunity to share a training space with active ELE teachers. In order to integrate them into the training program, each future teacher will be assigned an active teacher who, during the training activities, will serve as a guide and mentor.

The course allows teachers to receive an Erasmus+ Scholarship.

Dates

From August 3 to 7, 2026, in the morning and afternoon.

Components of the training

Includes:

• Pedagogical update workshops (12 hours).
• A literary update workshop (6 hours) with the writer J.A. González Sainz.
• Participation in cultural activities organised by CIAM:
  • Guided city tour with a guide;
  • Wine and cheese tasting.

The different educational components of the course are distributed as follows:

• 12 hours in workshops with a strong practical and experiential focus to acquire or update your teaching techniques and tools;
• Reflection sessions on action to share with participants their experiences with the supervision of a supervisor who monitors the participants’ progress in the program.
• 6 hours with a literary update workshop.

Optional:

Private classes: Optionally, CIAM offers the possibility of having 5 additional hours of language update.

Objectives

Spanish as a Foreign Language training workshops:

• Develop teaching competence, emphasising the pedagogical, linguistic, and cultural dimensions of the Spanish as a Foreign Language teacher.
• Familiarise yourself with theories and pedagogical foundations related to Spanish as a Foreign Language learning, placing special emphasis on cognitive and emotional factors, particularly in attention.
• Develop intercultural competence to face cultural shock situations.
• Familiarise yourself and practice techniques for the didactic exploitation in the Spanish as a Foreign Languageclassroom of literary texts, podcasts, and painting.
• Reflect to build pedagogical, linguistic, and cultural knowledge.
• Exchange ideas, tools, and techniques for use in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom.
• Introduction to gamification in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom.

Literary Update Workshop:

• Develop literary competence and improve the level of knowledge and depth of understanding of literature, culture, and thought in Spanish.
• Read in depth some selected texts by Hispanic authors from the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Familiarise yourself with the themes of some of the great authors and figures of Hispanic culture from the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Appreciate the importance of Spanish literature as a cultural product in itself and its contribution to our cultural heritage.
• Familiarise yourself with literary techniques used by great Spanish writers and their possible application as techniques to promote writing in the ELE classroom, as well as working with literary texts and other cultural products in Spanish.
• Reflect to build literary, cultural, and critical thinking knowledge in Spanish.

Contents

• Spanish as a Foreign Language training workshops
• The action-oriented approach.
• The development of attention and emotions and their importance in learning processes.
• Teaching grammatical, lexical-semantic, and cultural content.
• Culture in the classroom.
• Mediation in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom.
• Visual arts as a teaching resource in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom.
• ICT and AI in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom.
• The use of podcasts as a didactic resource in the Spanish as a Foreign Language classroom.
• The didactic unit: practices on the development of a didactic unit.

Literary Update Workshop:

• Two classics of Spanish literature: Bécquer and Machado, through their work and their texts.
• The writer and literary historiography: diminishment and context.
• In-depth reading: the writer, the text, and the reader.
• Life of the text and text of life: life of the writer and life of the reader.
• Reading from life and with life: living from reading and with reading.
• Commented reading of a legend by Bécquer and some poems by Machado.

Program

The final program will be communicated later.

Methodology

It is an eminently practical and experiential course. The sessions are organised around group dynamics and activities that involve participants experientially. Reflection and inquiry about the work done in groups and the presented learning theories and pedagogical assumptions are the fundamental tools used to build knowledge and guide and accompany the participants’ learning experiences.

Teachers

J. A. González Sainz (Soria, 1956) is a writer, translator, and professor. Graduated in Hispanic Philology, he has over 30 years of experience in teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language at various universities. His latest work is the first volume of The Little Life. (1. The Art of Escape), Anagrama, 2021. Some of his previous works include The Wind in the Leaves (2014), and earlier notable novels such as Eyes That Do Not See (Anagrama 2010), Back to the World (Anagrama, 2003), and An Exasperated World (Anagrama, 1995), for which he received the XIII Herralde Prize for Novels (Barcelona, 1995). In 2006, he was awarded the XXV Castilla y León Letters Prize (Valladolid, 2006); and in 2015, the VII D’Achtal Literature Observatory Prize (Madrid, May 2015). He has also written a long series of articles (El País, El Mundo, ABC, Letra Internacional, etc.) and short stories, among which those included in the book Los encuentros (Anagrama, 1989) are worth mentioning. He is the founder and professor of CIAM. He has translated various Italian writers and philosophers, particularly a significant portion of Claudio Magris’s work. Among the authors he has translated are also books by D. Del Giudice, G. Ceronetti, E. Severino, G. Stuparich, S. D’Arzo. In the pedagogical field applied to the teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE), he has specialised in the development of workshops dedicated to the importance of attention in learning in general and particularly in learning a foreign language.

Graciela Fantini (Udine, Italy, 1967) is currently the academic director of CIAM, coordinator of Study Abroad programs, and service-learning projects. She is researching the use of games, the introduction of new technologies in the classroom, how to learn Spanish through task-based projects, how to teach culture to young and less young students, and how to introduce service-learning projects in Spanish teaching. She holds a degree in Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Venice and a PhD in Ibero-American Studies from the same university. She has been a Spanish Language professor at the University of Trieste, an English translation professor at the University of Venice, and a Spanish Language and Civilisation professor at Italian institutes.

Certificate

At the end of the course, all participants will receive a certificate of attendance or participation, which will include the number of class hours completed and the program contents.

Optional and complementary activities

The course can be complemented with optional activities:

Private classes: 5 hours of individual language update classes or individual classes or small groups of 2 to 5 students for DELE C1 or C2 preparation (optional), tailored to the specific needs of the teacher. After enrolment, the teacher will receive a needs analysis sheet.

Weekend excursion to places of interest in Soria (prior consultation of offer and availability).

For more information, don’t hesitate to write to us at info@ciantoniomachado.com

Prices

Curso de formación de profesores de ELE	3- 7 de agosto	250,00€
5 horas de clases individuales de actualización lingüística para profesores no nativos	Opcionales	190,00€
5 horas de clases en pequeños grupos de 2 a 5 alumnos para la preparación del DELE C1 o C2	Opcionales	135,00€
Alojamiento		Precios y disponibilidad a consultar

Accommodation

Participants can stay wherever they wish according to their tastes and possibilities. The reservation is the responsibility of each participant. In any case, we can suggest the following accommodations:

University Residence Duques de Soria

The university residence is located in the same building as CIAM, in the Convent of La Merced. The spots are limited, to reserve you can write to mcarauzoa@fundacion.uva.es

Shared double room with full board 28.00€ per day;

Single room with full board, €38.00 per day.

Numancia Trilema Residence

The student residence is very close to the Convent of la Merced. The spots are limited. To reserve, you can write to coordinacion@ciantoniomachado.com.

• Single room with shared bathroom between two rooms, full board, €40.00;
• Single room with shared bathroom between two rooms, half board 34.00€;
• Single room with shared bathroom between two rooms, bed and breakfast 28.00€.

Hostel of Santa María de Nazaret

The Hospedería Santa María de Nazaret is located 150 meters from the Convento de la Merced. The reservation must be made directly by calling the number 975 21 10 12 or by writing to nazaretsoria@yahoo.es

• Single room, accommodation only, €42.
• Single room, bed and breakfast, €45.
• Single room, half board, €58.
• Single room, full board, €68.

It also has 4 double rooms available. Enquire by phone.

Hotel Cortabitarte

We have a collaboration agreement with Hotel Cortabitarte, located in the heart of the city and just a few steps from the Convento de la Merced. The reservation must be made directly by calling the number 975 24 52 52 or writing to reservas@cortabitartehotel.com . You must indicate participation in “Los encuentros de Soria 12 organised by CIAM” to enjoy special prices.

From Sunday to Thursday:

• Double room for single use with breakfast 75€.
• Double room with breakfast €80.

Weekends (Friday, Saturday, and holidays):

• 10% discount off the sale price.

Collaborators