English Español
For AVE to work properly the computer you will be using needs to comply with some basic requirements and you will need broadband internet connection.
AVE is compatible with both PC and Mac using Internet Explorer or Mozilla. If you use Internet Explorer 9 you must activate the compatibility view. AVE is not yet compatible with Safari or Google Chrome.
A firewall or a toolbar can intefere with AVE by blocking pop-ups. For AVE to work pop-ups must be allowed.
For details please go to the course home page www.ave.cvc.cervantes.es, choose a language (i.e. EN for English), click on the question mark indicating “Help” and then on Technical requirements.
AVE is made up of a total of 16 courses, organised into the following levels:
Level A1 (Initial) - Courses A1.1 and A1.2
Level A2 (Elementary) - Courses A2.1 and A2.2
Level B1 (Intermediate) - Courses B1.1, B1.2, B1.3 and B1.4
Level B2 (Advanced) - Courses B2.1, B2.2, B2.3 and B2.4
Level C1 (Proficiency) - Courses C1.1, C1.2, C1.3 and C1.4
When you enrol on the Individual Online Learning option of AVE you receive a password which allows you to work with the course material for 16 weeks. On average, this is the time needed to do one course, working some 3 hours per week. Online Courses with Tutor Support run for a longer period of time (20 weeks). Students doing this option will need to work 2 to 3 hours per week.
The Individual Online Learning option allows you to do the course at your own pace, working more or less each week to suit your own time availability. If you do not complete the course in the 16 week period you can re-enrol for another 16 weeks. In this case you can request a password for more than once course, to include the course you did not finish and the following course.
AVE has an automatic system to help students keep track of the work they have done.
In the Individual Online Learning option of AVE students can assess their progress by checking the correct answers to the different activities and by doing the self-evaluation tests. In addition to this, students doing the Online Courses with Tutor Support receive their tutor’s feedback to regularly suggested open-ended tasks. These tasks are corrected by the tutor and sent back with explanations. This kind of feedback is particularly valued by most students.
The AVE material is particularly useful to work on grammar and vocabulary and to develop listening comprehension, reading and writing skills. Courses do not include speaking practice in real time of the kind that you would have in a class-based course, but there is a special section within AVE (called Sonidos y letras) that focuses on pronunciation. Throughout the courses there are also activities where you can record your own voice to compare your pronunciation with an example that you hear first. To do these activities you need a microphone.
For courses with a tutor we will issue a certificate stating that the student has completed the course, provided that the online work has been done and that a minimum of 5 tasks have been sent to the course tutor for correction.
Students doing the Individual Online Learning option do not have a tutor to monitor their progress and for this reason we can only issue a certificate on request stating that the student was enrolled on a certain course for a certain period.
If you do an online course you can join a class later, but it is important that your conversation skills are up to the same level as the class you wish to take.
Before enrolling in a class-based course you must call the Instituto Cervantes (020 7235 0353 / 020 7201 0750) to book an appointment with a teacher for a level test. Please note that there is no exact correspondence between the AVE syllabus and the syllabus of the other courses at the Instituto Cervantes.
Special courses to prepare for the DELE B1 and DELE B2 exams are now available. These courses provide practice for all papers, including models of written texts and compositions, videos of interviews of the oral section and useful tips for the exam. For more information on the DELE diplomas and past papers you can go to their official website http://diplomas.cervantes.es/.
To hear a presentation of AVE in English go to http://ave.cervantes.es/guias/AVE/guia_en.htm. Make sure your speakers are turned on to hear the presentation (please bear in mind that some functions might not be available depending on the type of course you wish to take). For further information or temporary access, please send an e-mail to tutorave.londres@cervantes.es.
N.º 633. Noticias destacadas
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