This free course, Advanced Spanish: Language in context, will develop your knowledge and understanding of the societies and cultures of Spain and Latin America and extend the practical skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. The course focuses on the many ways in which living languages - notably Spanish - adapt to the contexts in which they are used.

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• define a living language and explain the features that make it qualify as such
• identify the types of knowledge required in order to understand a language’s regional varieties
• evaluate the benefits and disadvantages of ‘neutral Spanish’
• discuss the tensions between linguistic fragmentation and unity in contemporary Spanish.