Abstract:

According to the official data, the number of candidates to take DELE exams and obtain DELE Spanish Diplomas is growing in Russian Federation and around the world, because the students will benefit from the assessment system common to the European framework, which acquired competences are internationally recognized. The RUDN University facilitates its L2 Spanish students, studying under the program “Translator”, to earn DELE Spanish Diploma by providing them free access to take DELE exams at the Cervantes Institute (Moscow).

The DELE exams follow the guidelines of The Curricula Plan of the Cervantes Institute based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages as an international standard, which establishes the level of knowledge of a language and provides a common basis for objectives, content and methods in L2 education.

The article aims to share strategies and techniques for teachers and L2 Spanish students to teach and learn Spanish idiomatic expressions in accordance with the requirements of The Curricula Plan of the Cervantes Institute that details linguistic competencies and considers the idioms and proverbs as part of the linguistic content that should be included in the DELE exams.Whereas idiomatic expressions present a figurative, non-literal meaning, they are particularly difficult in any foreign language acquisition.

The paper intends to make a brief contribution to prepare L2 Spanish students to take DELE exams, substantiates the methodological principles of teaching idioms depending on the level of L2 Spanish students’ language proficiency and gives the classification of Spanish idioms according to their lexical semantic structure and imaginative perception by L1 Russian students.

The methodological approach allows using idioms as a material to develop communicative competence applying the method of Cooperative learning. Assignments provided in this paper vary depending on the language level and prove effective in L2 Spanish students of the RUDN University studying under the program “Translator" from beginners to C1 level.

Keywords:

DELE exams, requirements, L2 Spanish students, linguistic competencies, idiomatic expressions