Western Mindanao State University

College of Liberal Arts

History Department
Zamboanga City

Introduction to
Spanish
Introducción al
Español
WMSU

Prepared by:
Eryle Edvin Espina Protacio
Objectives
• Introduce the spanish language;
• Trace the historical development of
Spanish language; and
• Appreciate the importance of spanish and
how to learn it.
Spanish Language
• Spanish people tend to call this language “Español”, but
call it “Castellano.”
• In this manner, the Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses
the term castellano to define the official language of the
whole State, opposed to other spanish languages. Article
III reads as follows:
– El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado. (…)
Las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las
respectivas Comunidades Autónomas…
– Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State. (…)
The other Spanish languages shall also be official in the
respective Autonomous Communities…
• It is an Iberian-Romance language
• The biggest Romance languages are: Spanish,
Portuguese, French, Italian, Romanian, and
Catalan.
• It is spoken as a first language by some 360
million people worldwide.
• It is the official language of 18 American
countries as well as of the Commonwealth of
Puerto Rico, along with Spain in Europe and
Equatorial Guinea in Africa.
• However, the three main differences that distinguish how
Spanish is spoken in one place versus another are
vocabulary, accent, and grammar.
• Despite these differences, hundreds of millions of
Spanish speakers communicate successfully across all
the countries where the language is spoken.
• In the early 21st century, Mexico had the greatest
number of speakers (more than 85 million), followed by
Colombia (more than 40 million), Argentina (more than
35 million), the United States (more than 31 million), and
Spain (more than 30 million).
Brief History
• Spanish is also known (particularly in Latin
America, but increasingly in Spain itself) as
Castilian, after the dialect from which modern
standard Spanish developed.
• 9th century - That dialect arose in Cantabria
around the town of Burgos in north-central Spain
(Old Castile)
• 11th century - Spain was reconquered from the
Moors, spread southward to central Spain (New
Castile) around Madrid and Toledo.
• 15th century - the kingdoms of Castile and Leon
merged with that of Aragon, and Castilian
became the official language of all of Spain.
• 16th and 17th centuries- a modified form
developed in Toledo in the 16th and 17th
centuries and, more recently, in Madrid.
• Today, Spanish is one of the most spoken
languages in spain and the rest of the world
world.
Importance
• The Spanish-speaking population is one of the fasting
growing segments in the world. Here are some important
facts regarding the Spanish language:
– Spanish, the official language in twenty-one countries, is the
third most widely-spoken language in the world, after English
and Mandarin.
– More than 400 million people speak Spanish worldwide
– Experts predict that by the year 2050, there will be 530 million
Spanish speakers.

DOCUMENTS AND COMMUNICATION

How to learn a new language
Learning a new language is not as complicated
as many people think it is.
Important tips for learning spanish:
1. Set your goal. Setting a daily goal will keep you
constantly disciplined while learning a new
language.
2. Practice. How will you succeed if you never
practice? Learning how to speak a new language
is very involved.
3. Make friends. Try as much as possible to make
new friends who can speak Spanish and speak to
them in Spanish.
4. Enhancing your accent. You can watch
Spanish movies or a few YouTube videos in order
to improve your accent (those with subtitles are a
lot easier to follow).
5. Don’t get frustrated. If you can’t get it right,
don’t get frustrated. Sometimes we have a bad day
or we are not in the mood, but no matter why
you’re not getting it, don’t get desperate.
7. Learn more. There is always something
new to learn: new words, new phrases, new
scenarios, etc.
8. Make Spanish labels. Get stickers and
label literally everything in your house with
the Spanish word and a sentence or two in
Spanish.
9. Think in Spanish. Push yourself to
converse with yourself and think in Spanish.
10. Use circumlocution and contextualization.
We all find ourselves having a hard time
remembering a word, name or phrase even when
speaking in English, especially when talking about
technical things

To summarize, when you set out to learn

a new language, you need to immerse
yourself in it.
ACTIVITY TIME