Notes · SpanishUK · A-Levels

Monarchies and Dictatorships

Monarquías y dictaduras is the sub-theme AQA requires to be studied in relation to any relevant Spanish-speaking country, and it carries three strands: la dictadura de Franco, la evolución de la monarquía en España, and los dictadores latinoamericanos. The notes cover the verifiable chronology - the Second Republic, the Civil War, the Franco regime and its phases, the death of Franco in 1975 and the Transition, the Constitution of 1978 and the coup attempt of 1981, the abdication of 2014 - and the Latin American dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s with their memory movements, together with the Spanish needed to narrate history accurately in the past tenses and to discuss memory without partisanship.

5 sections~25 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 1 · Advanced 4

T·111111 / 16

Exam profile

AO1 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to spoken Spanish on history, memory and political institutionsAO2 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to written Spanish on dictatorship, transition and monarchyAO3 · Manipulate the language accurately, using a range of lexis and structureAO4 · Show knowledge of, and respond critically to, political history in the Spanish-speaking world

Operators:narrarsituarexplicartraducircontrastarvalorar

basic level

This sub-theme belongs to the A-level-only political theme and does not appear in the AS qualification. At the basic level, secure narration of the main events - dictatorship, transition, democracy - with correct dates is the expectation.

higher level

The full A-Level expects periods to be distinguished within the Franco regime, the monarchy's role in the Transition to be assessed rather than assumed, and the Latin American dictatorships to be handled with their memory movements and their contested figures. Answers must narrate accurately and judge carefully.

Depth

Text

Contents · 5 sections

Monarchies and Dictatorships

The Franco dictatorship: la dictadura de Franco#

AdvancedAQA 7692 3.2.2 - Monarquías y dictaduras: la dictadura de FrancoDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Fix the chronology before anything else, because a wrong date destroys the credibility of an otherwise good answer. The Second Republic was proclaimed in April 1931. The Civil War began in July 1936 with a military uprising against the Republican government and ended in April 1939 with the victory of the rebel side led by Francisco Franco. His dictatorship lasted from 1939 until his death on 20 November 1975 - almost forty years, one of the longest in twentieth-century Europe. Note the Spanish terms: el golpe de Estado, la sublevación, el bando republicano and el bando nacional or sublevado, la posguerra, el exilio, la represión.

Distinguish phases within the regime, because treating it as static is the commonest weakness. The 1940s were the years of la autarquía: economic isolation, rationing - la cartilla de racionamiento - severe repression, and international ostracism after the Second World War. From the 1950s Spain moved out of isolation, signing agreements with the United States and joining the United Nations. The 1959 stabilisation plan opened the economy, and the 1960s brought el desarrollismo: rapid industrial growth, mass internal migration from the countryside to the cities, emigration to northern Europe, and the beginnings of mass tourism, which brought foreign currency and, incidentally, foreign customs. The regime's later years saw growing opposition, illegal but persistent, in universities, in the labour movement and in the Church.

Describe the nature of the regime factually and without euphemism. It was a personal dictatorship: Franco was Jefe del Estado, head of government for most of the period, and commander of the armed forces. There was a single party, no free elections, no independent trade unions - only the state-run el sindicato vertical - and no freedom of press or association; censorship, la censura, applied to publishing, cinema and correspondence. Political repression included military tribunals, imprisonment and executions, and Catalan, Basque and Galician were excluded from official and public use for much of the period. National Catholicism, el nacionalcatolicismo, made the Church a pillar of the state. These statements are historically uncontroversial and can be made plainly.

The regime's own legal architecture is what connects this strand to the next. In 1947 a Law of Succession declared Spain a kingdom - a kingdom without a king, since Franco remained head of state for life with the power to name his successor. In 1969 he designated Juan Carlos de Borbón, grandson of the last reigning king, as his successor with the title of king. That decision is the hinge of modern Spanish history: it meant that when Franco died the institutions passed to a monarch appointed by the dictatorship, and everything that follows - whether the monarchy consolidated democracy or merely survived the regime that created it - is argued from there.

Worked example

Translation into English: a passage on memory of the dictatorship

Translate into English: «Mi abuela nunca hablaba de la guerra. Cuando yo era pequeño y preguntaba, cambiaba de tema o me mandaba a jugar. Sólo cuando cumplió noventa años contó que a su padre se lo habían llevado una noche de 1940 y que jamás volvieron a saber de él.»

Distinguish the two past tenses
Nunca hablaba, era, preguntaba, cambiaba and mandaba are all imperfect: habitual or continuous. Cumplió and contó are preterite: single events. The switch at Sólo cuando cumplió is the turning point of the passage, and English marks it with a simple past.
Render cambiaba de tema and me mandaba a jugar
Cambiar de tema is to change the subject. Mandar a alguien a hacer algo is to send someone off to do something; me mandaba a jugar is she would send me off to play. The imperfect here is best rendered with would to keep the habitual sense.
Handle the double pronoun and the euphemism
A su padre se lo habían llevado is literally her father, they had taken him away - a passive-like impersonal with a fronted object and the pronoun se lo. Llevarse a alguien is the standard euphemism in Spanish testimony for arrest and disappearance, and the translation should preserve that flatness: her father had been taken away one night in 1940.
Translate jamás volvieron a saber de él
Volver a plus infinitive means to do something again; jamás volvieron a saber de él is they never heard of him again. Saber de alguien is to have news of someone, not to know them.
Keep the understatement
The passage works by silence, so do not add emphasis the Spanish does not have. Nunca hablaba de la guerra is never talked about the war - not refused to speak about the war, which would import an interpretation the writer deliberately withholds.

Result: My grandmother never talked about the war. When I was small and asked, she would change the subject or send me off to play. Only when she turned ninety did she tell us that her father had been taken away one night in 1940 and that they never heard of him again.

Typical mistakes

Saying that Franco won an election; he came to power through a military uprising and a civil war, and there were no competitive elections under the regime.
Treating the regime as unchanging; the 1940s and the 1960s differ so sharply that failing to distinguish them costs marks.

Active revision

Narra en español, en unas 150 palabras, la evolución del régimen franquista desde la autarquía hasta el desarrollismo, usando al menos cinco verbos en pretérito indefinido y tres en imperfecto.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - subject content (AQA) · GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages (Department for Education)

The monarchy: la evolución de la monarquía en España#

AdvancedAQA 7692 3.2.2 - Monarquías y dictaduras: la evolución de la monarquía en EspañaDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

De la dictadura a la democracia

Fig. 1The dates are the argument: forty years of dictatorship, three years from Franco's death to a democratic constitution, and a coup attempt only three years after that.

The chronology of the Transition is the most examinable sequence in the whole specification, so learn it as a sequence. Franco died on 20 November 1975; two days later Juan Carlos I was proclaimed king. In 1976 Adolfo Suárez was appointed prime minister and steered through a Law for Political Reform, approved by referendum, which effectively dismantled the regime's institutions from within - the phrase used in Spain is de la ley a la ley, from law to law. Political parties were legalised, including the Communist Party in 1977. The first free elections since the Republic were held in June 1977. The Constitution was approved by referendum in December 1978. On 23 February 1981 a group of civil guards seized the Congress in an attempted coup, and the King's televised address that night rejecting it is generally regarded as decisive in its failure. Spain joined the European Community in 1986.

The Constitution defines what the monarchy now is, and quoting it accurately is worth real credit. Article 1.3 states that the political form of the Spanish State is la Monarquía parlamentaria - a parliamentary monarchy. The King is Head of State, symbol of its unity and permanence, arbitrates and moderates the regular functioning of institutions, and represents the State internationally, but does not govern: his acts require countersignature by the government, which assumes responsibility for them. In Spanish: el Rey reina pero no gobierna. Understanding that the monarch's powers are formal and symbolic prevents the commonest error in this strand, which is to write as though the King ran the country.

Then the recent history, which must be reported factually and without partisanship. Juan Carlos I abdicated in June 2014 and was succeeded by his son, Felipe VI, in the first Spanish royal succession under the democratic Constitution. In 2020 the former king moved abroad amid investigations into his finances, a development widely covered in the Spanish press and politically contested. Public support for the monarchy, high in the years after the Transition, has been more variable since, and republicanism has a real presence in Spanish political debate. State these as facts and attribute the arguments: sus defensores subrayan el papel del rey en la Transición y su función arbitral; sus críticos consideran que una jefatura de Estado hereditaria es difícilmente compatible con el principio democrático.

The genuinely interesting historical question - and the best essay material in this sub-theme - is how to judge the Transition itself. The classic account presents it as a model of peaceful, negotiated change from dictatorship to democracy, achieved through consensus and symbolised by the Pactos de la Moncloa and by the amnesty of 1977. A revisionist account emphasises what that consensus cost: the amnesty also protected those responsible for the repression, and the subject of the dictatorship's victims was largely postponed - what Spaniards call el pacto del olvido. Both readings are seriously held in Spain, and the mature answer weighs them rather than choosing between them.

Worked example

Structuring an essay-style answer on the Transition

The card asks: ¿Fue la Transición española un éxito? Build a spoken answer of about sixty seconds that argues both readings and concludes.

Define success before judging it
Depende de qué se entienda por éxito: si hablamos de estabilidad institucional, la respuesta es claramente afirmativa; si hablamos de justicia para las víctimas, resulta más discutible. This distinction structures the entire answer.
Give the case for, with dates
En apenas tres años, España pasó de una dictadura de casi cuarenta años a una Constitución aprobada en referéndum, y superó además un intento de golpe en 1981. Concrete chronology is the evidence.
Give the case against, precisely
Ahora bien, la amnistía de 1977 impidió juzgar los crímenes de la dictadura, y muchas víctimas siguieron durante décadas sin reconocimiento ni reparación. Naming the amnesty is far stronger than a general complaint.
Add the later development
De hecho, las leyes de memoria aprobadas ya en el siglo XXI reconocen implícitamente que aquella cuestión quedó pendiente. This shows the debate is not merely academic.
Conclude by holding both
En definitiva, cabe considerarla un éxito político y, al mismo tiempo, una deuda moral no saldada. Cabe considerarla is a hedged formulation that allows a double conclusion without contradiction.

Result: Depende de qué se entienda por éxito: si hablamos de estabilidad institucional, la respuesta es claramente afirmativa; si hablamos de justicia para las víctimas, resulta más discutible. En apenas tres años, España pasó de una dictadura de casi cuarenta años a una Constitución aprobada en referéndum, y superó además un intento de golpe en 1981. Ahora bien, la amnistía de 1977 impidió juzgar los crímenes de la dictadura, y muchas víctimas siguieron durante décadas sin reconocimiento ni reparación. De hecho, las leyes de memoria aprobadas ya en el siglo XXI reconocen implícitamente que aquella cuestión quedó pendiente. En definitiva, cabe considerarla un éxito político y, al mismo tiempo, una deuda moral no saldada.

Typical mistakes

Writing that the King has political power; his functions are formal, symbolic and arbitral, and his acts require countersignature.
Presenting the Transition as universally admired in Spain; the pacto del olvido critique is mainstream and must at least be acknowledged.

Active revision

Redacta en español unas 150 palabras que expliquen el papel de la monarquía en la Transición, incluyendo el 23-F, y que recojan un argumento favorable y otro crítico.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - subject content (AQA)

Latin American dictatorships: los dictadores latinoamericanos#

AdvancedAQA 7692 3.2.2 - Monarquías y dictaduras: dictadores latinoamericanosDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Two cases give you everything a strong answer needs, so learn them properly rather than listing ten superficially. Chile: on 11 September 1973 a military coup led by Augusto Pinochet overthrew the elected government of Salvador Allende, who died in the presidential palace that day; the dictatorship lasted until 1990, imposed a new constitution in 1980, and was ended through a plebiscite in 1988 in which the No campaign won and which obliged the regime to call elections. Argentina: a military junta seized power in March 1976 and ruled until 1983 under what it called el Proceso de Reorganización Nacional; it waged a campaign of systematic repression, lost the South Atlantic war of 1982, and collapsed shortly afterwards.

The vocabulary of repression and memory must be exact, because it is specific to this history. Los desaparecidos - those seized and never seen again - and la desaparición forzada; los detenidos; la tortura; los vuelos de la muerte in Argentina; el exilio; los presos políticos; la censura; el toque de queda, the curfew. For the response: las Madres de Plaza de Mayo, founded in 1977 by mothers who circled the square in Buenos Aires demanding news of their children, and las Abuelas, who searched for the children born in captivity and appropriated; la CONADEP, the commission whose 1984 report was titled Nunca más; el Juicio a las Juntas of 1985, in which the former commanders were tried and sentenced - an unusual step in the region and a landmark in international human-rights practice.

Be precise about contested figures, because this is where careless answers fail. In Argentina, human-rights organisations have long cited a figure of around thirty thousand disappeared, while the official commission documented close to nine thousand cases; the difference is itself part of Argentine public debate, and the honest formulation acknowledges both. In Chile, official truth commissions established several thousand deaths and disappearances and far larger numbers of victims of political imprisonment and torture. The safe pattern in Spanish is to attribute: según las organizaciones de derechos humanos... mientras que la comisión oficial documentó... Never invent a number and never present a contested figure as settled.

Two further points give the strand depth. First, these regimes were connected: from the mid-1970s several Southern Cone dictatorships co-ordinated the pursuit of exiled opponents across borders in what became known as el Plan Cóndor, documented in later judicial proceedings. Second, the region's dictatorships were not all alike: Paraguay endured a single ruler for over three decades until 1989; the Dominican Republic lived under Trujillo from 1930 until his assassination in 1961; Nicaragua under the Somoza family until 1979; and Cuba has been governed as a one-party state since 1959 by a revolutionary government of a wholly different political character. Distinguishing them - military juntas, personal dictatorships, one-party states - is exactly the analytical precision the top band asks for.

Worked example

Translation into Spanish: writing about memory and justice

Translate into Spanish: When the dictatorship ended, many families still did not know what had happened to their relatives. The mothers demanded that the government should investigate the disappearances. It was not until 1985 that the military commanders were tried.

Choose the past tenses
Cuando terminó la dictadura is a preterite, a single bounded event. No sabían is imperfect, a continuing state. Había pasado is pluperfect for the earlier event: what had happened to their relatives, qué había pasado con sus familiares.
Use the subjunctive after exigir que
Demanded that the government should investigate is a verb of influencing with a change of subject: las madres exigieron que el gobierno investigara. The imperfect subjunctive follows a preterite main verb - the sequence of tenses AQA lists explicitly.
Choose the right noun
Las desapariciones, and in this specific historical context las desapariciones forzadas. Sus familiares is more precise than sus parientes here, since familiar covers immediate family, and remember that pariente never means parent.
Build the it was not until construction
It was not until 1985 that has no word-for-word Spanish equivalent. Use the cleft: no fue hasta 1985 cuando se juzgó a los mandos militares, or Hubo que esperar hasta 1985 para que se juzgara. Both are idiomatic; the first keeps the emphasis of the English.
Decide the passive
The commanders were tried is best rendered with the pasiva refleja plus personal a: se juzgó a los mandos militares - note the singular verb, since the a-phrase is not the grammatical subject. Fueron juzgados is also correct and slightly more formal.

Result: Cuando terminó la dictadura, muchas familias todavía no sabían qué había pasado con sus familiares. Las madres exigieron que el gobierno investigara las desapariciones. No fue hasta 1985 cuando se juzgó a los mandos militares.

Typical mistakes

Treating all Latin American dictatorships as the same; military juntas, personal dictatorships and one-party states differ in structure and ideology.
Stating a single figure for the disappeared as established fact; the discrepancy between organisations and commissions is itself part of the history.

Active revision

Compara en español, en unas 150 palabras, la dictadura chilena y la argentina: cómo llegaron al poder, cómo terminaron y cómo se ha gestionado la memoria en cada país.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - subject content (AQA)

El léxico y los giros: narrating history in Spanish#

StandardAQA 7692 3.2.2 - Monarquías y dictadurasAQA 7692 3.3 Grammar

The lexical field, in blocks. El régimen: la dictadura, el dictador, la junta militar, el golpe de Estado, el régimen autoritario, el partido único, la censura, la represión, el exilio, la clandestinidad. La democracia: la transición, la reforma, la amnistía, el referéndum, las elecciones, el sufragio universal, la Constitución, el estado de derecho, la separación de poderes. La monarquía: el rey, la reina, el heredero, el príncipe, la princesa de Asturias, la abdicación, la sucesión, la Corona, la jefatura del Estado, el refrendo. La memoria: las víctimas, la reparación, la exhumación, la fosa común, la memoria histórica, el olvido, el homenaje, la verdad, la justicia.

Narration requires the two past tenses under complete control, and this sub-theme is where they are tested most severely. El pretérito indefinido advances the story: Franco murió en 1975, se aprobó la Constitución, el rey intervino. El imperfecto paints the background: el país vivía bajo la censura, la oposición se organizaba en la clandestinidad, muchos temían un nuevo conflicto. El pluscuamperfecto reaches back: cuando llegó la democracia, muchos exiliados ya habían rehecho su vida fuera. Practise switching between them within a single paragraph, because that is exactly what a historical narrative requires and what the examiner is looking for.

Dates and periods have their own formulas, and getting them right is cheap accuracy. A specific date: el 20 de noviembre de 1975 - no preposition before the day, and the month in lower case. A year: en 1978. A decade: en los años sesenta or en la década de los sesenta. A period: durante casi cuarenta años, a lo largo de la dictadura, desde 1939 hasta 1975, tras la muerte de Franco. Duration and interval: apenas tres años después, dos décadas más tarde, en el plazo de un año. And the essential narrative connectors: en un primer momento, poco después, a partir de entonces, finalmente.

Finally, tone. This material is politically sensitive in Spain and in Latin America to this day, and examiners expect the register of a well-informed observer rather than a partisan. Report positions rather than adopting them: para sus defensores..., sus detractores sostienen que... Use the impersonal for contested judgements: se ha discutido si..., suele considerarse que... Avoid loaded vocabulary in your own voice. And use the safe hedges for anything you cannot verify: se estima que, según las fuentes disponibles, las cifras varían según la fuente. Precision protects you; adjectives do not.

Worked example

Repairing a narrative paragraph: tense choice under pressure

A candidate writes: En 1975 Franco moría y España era una democracia. Después el rey hablaba en la televisión y el golpe fracasaba. Diagnose and rewrite it.

Identify the systematic error
Every verb is in the imperfect, so the narrative has no events - only background. Spanish would read this as a description of recurring states, which is nonsense with dated single occurrences.
Convert the events to the preterite
En 1975 murió Franco. Dos días después, Juan Carlos I fue proclamado rey. Note also the factual repair: Spain did not become a democracy in 1975; the Constitution came in 1978.
Restore the background in the imperfect
El país llevaba casi cuarenta años bajo una dictadura y muchos temían que la situación desembocara en un nuevo conflicto. Llevaba plus period and temían are correctly imperfect, and desembocara is the imperfect subjunctive after a verb of fear.
Order the events with connectors
En 1977 se celebraron las primeras elecciones libres y, al año siguiente, se aprobó la Constitución. En febrero de 1981, un grupo de guardias civiles asaltó el Congreso. Each event gets a preterite and a time marker.
Close with the consequence
Aquella misma noche, el rey se dirigió a los españoles por televisión y el golpe fracasó. Two preterites for two consecutive events, which is exactly how Spanish narrates a sequence.

Result: En 1975 murió Franco y, dos días después, Juan Carlos I fue proclamado rey. El país llevaba casi cuarenta años bajo una dictadura y muchos temían que la situación desembocara en un nuevo conflicto. En 1977 se celebraron las primeras elecciones libres y, al año siguiente, se aprobó la Constitución. En febrero de 1981, un grupo de guardias civiles asaltó el Congreso; aquella misma noche, el rey se dirigió a los españoles por televisión y el golpe fracasó.

Typical mistakes

Writing en el 1975 or el 1975; a bare year takes en - en 1975 - and a full date takes el before the day only.
Using the imperfect for the main events of a narrative; the events belong to the preterite and the imperfect supplies the background.

Active revision

Escribe en español un párrafo narrativo de 150 palabras sobre la Transición que contenga al menos cinco indefinidos, cuatro imperfectos, un pluscuamperfecto y cuatro conectores narrativos distintos.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - grammar (AQA)

En el examen: historical material in Papers 1 and 3#

AdvancedAQA 7692 4.4 Paper 1 - Listening, reading and writingAQA 7692 4.6 Paper 3 - Speaking, part one

AQA states that reading texts include contemporary and historical material, and this sub-theme is where historical texts are most likely. Historical prose brings three specific difficulties: unfamiliar institutional vocabulary (las Cortes, el refrendo, el estado de excepción), dense date and number information, and the past tenses used with precision. The technique is to build a mental timeline as you read, marking each verb as event or background; comprehension questions on historical texts overwhelmingly target sequence and cause, and a candidate who has the sequence straight can answer them even with gaps in vocabulary.

Testimony is the other common form, and it is emotionally weighted. Expect euphemism - se lo llevaron, no volvió, tuvo que marcharse - and expect silence to be significant, as in the worked example above. Expect also that speakers may be elderly, which affects delivery. Questions typically ask what a speaker felt or implied rather than what happened, so track the markers of stance rather than the facts alone.

For the speaking test, prepare a compact factual spine and rehearse saying it aloud, because dates are what candidates fumble under pressure: 1931, 1936, 1939, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1981, 1986, 2014 for Spain; 1973, 1988 and 1990 for Chile; 1976, 1983 and 1985 for Argentina. Add the two contested judgements - the Transition as success or as pacto del olvido, and the discrepancy over the figures for the disappeared - so that you can demonstrate critical response rather than recitation.

Finally, tact in the speaking test. The examiner may hold or voice a view; your task is not to agree or to confront but to argue with evidence. Three formulas: es una cuestión que sigue dividiendo a la sociedad española, y ambas posiciones tienen argumentos sólidos; entiendo ese punto de vista, aunque conviene recordar que...; personalmente, me parece más convincente la interpretación que sostiene que..., precisely because each of them signals a considered position rather than a slogan. And never present the Civil War as a conflict with a simple hero and villain: Spanish historiography is far more careful than that, and so should you be.

Worked example

The summary question on a historical text

A reading text of about 300 words describes the exhumation of a common grave from the Civil War: the families' campaign, the technical work of identification, and the political controversy the project provoked. Write the 95-word summary in Spanish.

Fix the three content points
The families' long campaign; the technical process of exhumation and identification; and the political disagreement it generated. This shape recurs in every text on historical memory.
Use the correct technical terms
La fosa común, la exhumación, la identificación mediante pruebas de ADN, los restos, la reparación. Using the exact vocabulary is both accurate and efficient, since each term replaces a paraphrase.
Keep the tenses straight
The campaign belongs to the past (llevaban años reclamando, imperfect of duration), the exhumation to the preterite or present perfect, and the controversy to the present. Tense confusion here costs AO3 marks.
Report the controversy neutrally
Use unos... otros or la iniciativa ha sido criticada por quienes consideran que... A summary of a politically contested text must not take sides, and neutral reporting is also faithful to the source.
Re-read once for language only
Check accents on exhumación, identificación and según, agreement of participles, and the subjunctive after any verb of demanding used by the families.

Result: Model summary (94 words): «El texto relata la apertura de una fosa común de la Guerra Civil en una localidad rural. Explica que las familias llevaban años reclamando la exhumación y que finalmente un equipo de arqueólogos y forenses ha recuperado los restos, que se intentarán identificar mediante pruebas de ADN. Recoge también la controversia política que ha suscitado la iniciativa: unos la consideran una reparación pendiente hacia las víctimas, mientras que otros sostienen que reabre heridas del pasado. El artículo concluye que varias familias esperan poder enterrar por fin a sus allegados.»

Typical mistakes

Confusing the Second Republic (1931-1939) with the Transition (from 1975); they are separate and forty years apart.
Presenting the Civil War with a simple villain; examiners expect the register of careful historiography, not of partisanship.

Active revision

Elabora una cronología en español de 1931 a 2014 con doce entradas, cada una de una línea, y memorízala; después recítala en voz alta en menos de noventa segundos.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - scheme of assessment (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

Department for Education

GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

Monarchies and Dictatorships

5 sections~25 min reading time4 competenciesLevel Standard 1 · Advanced 4

Monarchies and Dictatorships

Key points

Translation into English: a passage on memory of the dictatorship

Key points

Structuring an essay-style answer on the Transition

Key points

Translation into Spanish: writing about memory and justice

Key points

Repairing a narrative paragraph: tense choice under pressure

Key points

The summary question on a historical text

Sources

Monarchies and Dictatorships

Key points

Translation into English: a passage on memory of the dictatorship

Key points

Structuring an essay-style answer on the Transition

Key points

Translation into Spanish: writing about memory and justice

Key points

Repairing a narrative paragraph: tense choice under pressure

Key points

The summary question on a historical text

Sources