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Notes/Spanish/Today's Youth, Tomorrow's Citizens
Notes · SpanishUK · A-Levels

Today's Youth, Tomorrow's Citizens

Jóvenes de hoy, ciudadanos del mañana opens AQA's Aspects of political life in the Hispanic world and carries three strands: los jóvenes y su actitud hacia la política - activismo o apatía, el paro entre los jóvenes, and su sociedad ideal. The notes cover the evidence a strong answer needs - the 15-M movement of 2011 and its effect on Spanish party politics, the Chilean student mobilisations, the structural causes of Spain's persistently high youth unemployment, la precariedad and la emancipación tardía - together with the Spanish of political participation, the future and conditional tenses that describing an ideal society requires, and the subjunctive that follows wishes and purposes.

5 sections·~24 min reading time·4 competencies·Level Standard 2 · Advanced 3

T·101010 / 16
Exam profile
AO1 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to spoken Spanish on youth politics and workAO2 · Understand and respond, in speech and in writing, to written Spanish on participation, unemployment and aspirationAO3 · Manipulate the language accurately, using a range of lexis and structureAO4 · Show knowledge of, and respond critically to, political life in the Spanish-speaking world
Operators:explicarargumentartraducirresumirproponerevaluar

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 description of young people's political attitudes, of youth unemployment and of their aspirations is the expectation.

higher level

The full A-Level expects the apathy claim to be tested rather than repeated, unemployment to be explained structurally, and an ideal society to be described with the future, the conditional and the subjunctive under control.

Depth

Reading depth: In depth

Text

Text size: Standard

Contents · 5 sections▾
  1. Today's Youth, Tomorrow's Citizens
    • 01Engagement or apathy: activismo o apatía●
    • 02Youth unemployment: el paro entre los jóvenes●
    • 03The society they want: su sociedad ideal◐
    • 04El léxico y los giros: the language of politics and work◐
    • 05En el examen: youth and politics in Papers 1 and 3●
§ 01

Engagement or apathy: activismo o apatía#

●●●AdvancedLPAQA 7692 3.2.2 - Jóvenes de hoy, ciudadanos del mañana: los jóvenes y su actitud hacia la política, activismo o apatíaLPDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Key points

The specification poses the question as a choice, and the best answers refuse it. The evidence supports a different formulation: participation has not disappeared, it has changed channel. Turnout among the young is generally lower than among older voters, party membership is low across Europe, and trust in political parties is weak - all of which look like apathy. But the same generation mobilised in enormous numbers in the 15-M movement, in the feminist demonstrations of 8 March, and in the climate strikes. In Spanish, the analytical sentence is: no se trata tanto de desafección como de un desplazamiento de la participación desde los cauces tradicionales hacia formas más directas y episódicas.
El 15-M is the indispensable Spanish evidence, and it should be dated and described accurately. On 15 May 2011, demonstrations against unemployment, austerity and the political class filled squares across Spain; the encampment in Puerta del Sol in Madrid lasted weeks; participants were known as los indignados, and their slogans - no nos representan, democracia real ya - entered the language. Its consequences are debated, which is exactly what makes it good exam material: some analysts trace to it the emergence of new parties that broke Spain's two-party system from 2014 onwards, while others argue that the movement's effects were cultural rather than institutional. Both readings can be reported in Spanish and weighed.
Look beyond Spain, since the specification allows any Spanish-speaking country and the paper requires them. Chile is the clearest case of youth-led political change: secondary-school students mobilised in 2006 in what was called la revolución pingüina, after their school uniforms, and university students mobilised in 2011 over the cost and structure of higher education; in October 2019 the estallido social began with secondary students evading metro fares in protest at a rise, and grew into the largest protests in the country's recent history, opening a constitutional process. Argentina's Ni Una Menos and the region-wide climate movement complete the picture. Youth politics in Latin America has repeatedly moved national agendas.
Explain the causes of disaffection rather than deploring it, since explanation is what AO4 credits. Four are standard and defensible: the perception that parties do not address young people's material problems - housing and work above all; el desencanto produced by corruption cases; the barrier of political language, since institutional Spanish is remote from everyday speech; and the sense that decisions are taken elsewhere - in markets, in the European Union, in global processes. Set against these the counter-evidence: young Spaniards join associations, volunteer, sign petitions, and mobilise around specific causes at very short notice. The judgement then writes itself: los jóvenes no rechazan la política, sino una determinada forma de hacerla.
Worked example

Building a stimulus-card answer on political engagement

The card asks: ¿Por qué votan menos los jóvenes? Build a spoken answer of about fifty seconds that explains rather than laments.

  1. 01Question the premise politely

    Es verdad que la participación electoral juvenil suele ser menor, aunque conviene matizar la conclusión que se extrae de ese dato. Conceding the fact while questioning the inference is the strongest possible opening.

  2. 02Give the material explanation first

    Muchos jóvenes consideran que los partidos no abordan sus problemas más urgentes: el empleo precario y, sobre todo, el precio de la vivienda. Material explanations are more persuasive than psychological ones and are easier to evidence.

  3. 03Add the institutional explanation

    A ello se suma el desencanto provocado por los casos de corrupción y la distancia del lenguaje político. Two causes, briefly stated, are worth more than one elaborated at length.

  4. 04Introduce the counter-evidence

    Ahora bien, esa misma generación llenó las plazas en 2011 con el 15-M y ha protagonizado las movilizaciones feministas y climáticas. This is where the answer stops being a complaint and becomes an argument.

  5. 05Close with the reformulation and a subjunctive

    Por eso creo que no rechazan la política, sino una forma de hacerla que no sienten como propia. Ojalá los partidos entendieran ese desplazamiento. Ojalá plus imperfect subjunctive expresses a wish thought unlikely, and it is a structure examiners rarely hear.

Result: Es verdad que la participación electoral juvenil suele ser menor, aunque conviene matizar la conclusión que se extrae de ese dato. Muchos jóvenes consideran que los partidos no abordan sus problemas más urgentes: el empleo precario y, sobre todo, el precio de la vivienda. A ello se suma el desencanto provocado por los casos de corrupción y la distancia del lenguaje político. Ahora bien, esa misma generación llenó las plazas en 2011 con el 15-M y ha protagonizado las movilizaciones feministas y climáticas. Por eso creo que no rechazan la política, sino una forma de hacerla que no sienten como propia. Ojalá los partidos entendieran ese desplazamiento.

Exam focus

  • Reframe the apathy question as a change of channel, and evidence it with 15-M in 2011 and the Chilean mobilisations (AO4).
  • Report the debate about 15-M's consequences - institutional against cultural - rather than asserting one (AO4).

Typical mistakes

  • Equating low turnout with apathy; the same cohorts that vote least have produced the largest street mobilisations of the last fifteen years.
  • Writing la política is plural in English usage; in Spanish la política is the activity and las políticas are policies - the distinction is examined constantly.

Active revision

Argumenta en español, en unas 140 palabras, si los jóvenes españoles son apáticos o participativos, citando el 15-M y un ejemplo latinoamericano, y matizando la conclusión.

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)

§ 02

Youth unemployment: el paro entre los jóvenes#

●●●AdvancedLPAQA 7692 3.2.2 - Jóvenes de hoy, ciudadanos del mañana: el paro entre los jóvenesLPDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Key points

Spain's youth unemployment has been persistently among the highest in the European Union for decades, and that persistence is the point: it is structural rather than accidental, which means it can be explained. Four mechanisms are well established. First, la dualidad del mercado laboral: a workforce split between secure permanent contracts and a large body of temporary ones, into which new entrants are placed. Second, the weight of seasonal sectors - tourism, hospitality, agriculture, construction - which expand and contract sharply. Third, the mismatch between qualifications and vacancies, producing both la sobrecualificación and unfilled technical posts. Fourth, the cost of a first job to employers who bear the risk of an untested worker.
The vocabulary must be exact, because this strand is full of technical terms that are easy marks. El paro or el desempleo; estar en paro; la tasa de paro; un contrato indefinido as against un contrato temporal; la precariedad; un becario and unas prácticas, paid or not; el salario mínimo; la jornada parcial; cotizar. Two coinages are essential Spanish social vocabulary: el mileurismo, from the young graduate earning around a thousand euros a month, and los ni-nis, young people who neither study nor work - a label that is widely used and equally widely criticised for blaming individuals for a structural situation. Noting that criticism is itself a good AO4 move.
The consequences run far beyond income and connect this sub-theme to others. La emancipación tardía: young Spaniards leave home markedly later than their northern European counterparts, which delays partnership and parenthood and feeds the low birth rate discussed under family values. La emigración juvenil: after the crisis that began in 2008, significant numbers of qualified young Spaniards left for Germany, the United Kingdom and elsewhere, in what the Spanish press called la fuga de cerebros. And the personal cost: la incertidumbre, la imposibilidad de planificar, el desgaste psicológico. Spanish gives you a precise formulation: no es sólo una cuestión de ingresos, sino de la imposibilidad de proyectar una vida a más de seis meses vista.
Policy should be discussed with the same precision. Instruments that recur in Spanish debate include reforms limiting the abuse of temporary contracts, incentives for hiring young workers, la formación profesional dual which combines classroom and workplace training on the German model, employment guarantees for the young, and measures on rents and public housing that address the emancipation problem from the other side. Evaluate rather than list: subsidies can displace rather than create jobs, training only works if the vacancies exist, and no labour measure solves a housing market. A conditional judgement closes the section well: mientras el acceso a la vivienda siga siendo tan difícil, cualquier mejora del empleo juvenil tendrá efectos limitados sobre la emancipación.
Worked example

Translation into Spanish: writing about precarious work

Translate into Spanish: After finishing her degree, she worked for two years on temporary contracts. She says that she could not plan anything, because she never knew whether they would renew her. If wages were higher, many young people would not have to emigrate.

  1. 01Render after finishing

    After plus gerund is después de plus infinitive: después de terminar la carrera. Note la carrera for a university degree course - one of the highest-frequency items in this sub-theme.

  2. 02Choose the past tense for a bounded period

    Worked for two years is a completed period, so the preterite: trabajó dos años con contratos temporales. Spanish does not need for: trabajó dos años, not trabajó por dos años in peninsular usage.

  3. 03Handle could not plan and never knew

    Both describe a continuing state within that period, so the imperfect: no podía planificar nada and nunca sabía. The contrast with the preterite trabajó is exactly the distinction the grammar list expects you to control.

  4. 04Build the indirect question

    Whether they would renew her becomes si la iban a renovar or si la renovarían. Si introduces the indirect question - no accent, since it is not the interrogative sí - and the conditional or the ir a periphrasis in the past both render would.

  5. 05Build the counterfactual conditional

    If wages were higher, many would not have to emigrate = si los salarios fueran más altos, muchos jóvenes no tendrían que emigrar. Si plus imperfect subjunctive plus conditional; tener que plus infinitive for have to.

Result: Después de terminar la carrera, trabajó dos años con contratos temporales. Dice que no podía planificar nada, porque nunca sabía si la iban a renovar. Si los salarios fueran más altos, muchos jóvenes no tendrían que emigrar.

Exam focus

  • Explain youth unemployment structurally - labour-market duality, seasonal sectors, qualification mismatch - rather than as a consequence of one crisis (AO4).
  • Use the exact Spanish terms (contrato temporal, precariedad, mileurismo, formación profesional dual) and note the criticism of the ni-ni label (AO3/AO4).

Typical mistakes

  • Translating unemployed as desempleado only; the everyday Spanish is estar en paro, and el paro is the noun used in every news bulletin.
  • Quoting an unemployment percentage from memory; rates change constantly, and a structural explanation is worth more than a stale figure.

Active revision

Explica en español, en unas 140 palabras, tres causas estructurales del paro juvenil en España y evalúa una medida política, señalando su límite.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

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

§ 03

The society they want: su sociedad ideal#

●●○StandardLPAQA 7692 3.2.2 - Jóvenes de hoy, ciudadanos del mañana: su sociedad idealLPDfE GCE modern foreign languages subject content

Key points

This strand is the one place in the specification that asks explicitly for aspiration, and it is therefore the grammar test of the whole theme: you cannot describe a society that does not yet exist without the future, the conditional and the subjunctive. The priorities that recur in Spanish surveys and public debate are consistent and can be stated safely: acceso a la vivienda, empleo estable, sanidad y educación públicas de calidad, igualdad efectiva, sostenibilidad medioambiental, y una política más transparente y participativa. Notice that these are largely material and institutional rather than abstract, which is itself a finding worth reporting.
Housing deserves its own paragraph because it is the issue on which Spanish youth debate has concentrated. The vocabulary: el alquiler, la hipoteca, la entrada (the deposit needed to buy), la vivienda protegida or vivienda pública, el alquiler social, los pisos turísticos, la okupación, el desahucio (eviction), la burbuja inmobiliaria that burst after 2008. Public policy has moved in recent years towards regulating rents and expanding public housing stock, and Spanish debate concerns whether such measures raise or lower supply - a genuine disagreement among economists that you can report without adjudicating: sus defensores sostienen que contienen los precios; sus críticos, que reducen la oferta disponible.
The environment is the second consistent priority, and it links youth politics to a global movement with a Spanish-language presence. The vocabulary: el cambio climático, la emergencia climática, la transición ecológica, las energías renovables - Spain has substantial solar and wind capacity - la huella de carbono, el consumo responsable, la despoblación rural. Note the Latin American dimension: environmental conflicts over mining, water and deforestation are central to youth activism from Chile to Colombia, and indigenous movements are frequently at their centre. That connection - environmental politics as indigenous politics - is a sophisticated point few candidates make.
Now the grammar, which this strand exists to test. The future for prediction: la vivienda seguirá siendo el principal obstáculo. The conditional for the hypothetical: una sociedad ideal garantizaría el acceso a la vivienda. The subjunctive after wishes and purposes: quieren que el trabajo permita vivir con dignidad; luchan para que la educación siga siendo pública; esperan que la transición ecológica cree empleo. And the future subjunctive-like structures with time clauses: cuando la vivienda deje de ser un negocio, la emancipación será posible. Write three sentences using these four patterns and you have the architecture of any answer on the ideal society.
Worked example

Translation into English: a passage on aspiration and housing

Translate into English: «Mis padres compraron su piso con veintiséis años. Yo, con treinta y dos, comparto uno con dos compañeros y me gasto la mitad del sueldo en el alquiler. No pido gran cosa: ojalá pudiera irme a vivir solo antes de cumplir los cuarenta.»

  1. 01Handle the age expression

    Con veintiséis años means at twenty-six. Spanish uses con plus the age where English uses at, and a tener a esa edad construction would be heavier. Do not translate it as with twenty-six years.

  2. 02Render the reflexive gastarse

    Me gasto la mitad del sueldo is I spend half my salary. The reflexive gastarse adds emphasis, roughly I spend a whole half of my salary; English carries it with word order or with the possessive.

  3. 03Translate the litotes

    No pido gran cosa is I am not asking for much - an understatement that carries the whole irony of the passage. Gran cosa is a fixed phrase; do not translate it as a big thing.

  4. 04Handle ojalá plus imperfect subjunctive

    Ojalá pudiera irme a vivir solo expresses a wish presented as unlikely: I only wish I could move out on my own, or if only I could. The imperfect subjunctive after ojalá is what marks the wish as improbable, and English needs only wish or if only to convey it.

  5. 05Render cumplir los cuarenta

    Antes de cumplir los cuarenta is before I turn forty. Cumplir años is the verb for having a birthday, and cumplir los cuarenta is to turn forty - one of those idioms that must simply be known.

Result: My parents bought their flat at twenty-six. I am thirty-two and I share one with two flatmates, and I spend half my salary on rent. I am not asking for much: I only wish I could move out on my own before I turn forty.

Exam focus

  • Control the future, the conditional and the subjunctive after querer que, esperar que and para que - this strand is where they are tested (AO3).
  • Ground the ideal society in material priorities - housing, stable work, public services - rather than abstractions (AO4).

Typical mistakes

  • Writing espero que la vivienda es más barata; verbs of hoping and wanting require the subjunctive - espero que sea.
  • Using cuando plus future - cuando tendré trabajo; a future reference after cuando takes the present subjunctive, cuando tenga trabajo.

Active revision

Describe en español, en unas 140 palabras, tu sociedad ideal, usando al menos dos futuros, dos condicionales, dos subjuntivos tras «querer que» o «esperar que» y una oración temporal con «cuando» + subjuntivo.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

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

§ 04

El léxico y los giros: the language of politics and work#

●●○StandardLPAQA 7692 3.2.2 - Jóvenes de hoy, ciudadanos del mañanaLPAQA 7692 3.3 Grammar

Key points

The lexical field, in blocks. La política: el partido, el gobierno, la oposición, las elecciones, la papeleta, el voto, la abstención, el escaño, el diputado, el ayuntamiento, la campaña, el programa electoral, la corrupción, la transparencia. La participación: la manifestación, la concentración, la huelga, la petición, la asamblea, el asociacionismo, el voluntariado, la militancia, el activismo. El empleo: el contrato, el convenio, la nómina, el sueldo, la subida salarial, el despido, la baja, la reforma laboral, la formación profesional. La vivienda: el alquiler, la fianza, la hipoteca, el casero, el inquilino, la vivienda protegida, el desahucio. Note that un político is a politician and la política is politics or policy - and that el paro is both unemployment and the benefit paid for it.
Three structures dominate this sub-theme. First, the impersonal and passive forms for institutional statements: se aprobó una reforma, se han creado ayudas, se debate si conviene regular los alquileres. Second, verbs of demanding and proposing with the subjunctive: exigen que se regule el alquiler, proponen que las prácticas sean remuneradas, piden que se reduzca la temporalidad. Third, purpose and result clauses: para que los jóvenes puedan emanciparse; de modo que el contrato temporal deje de ser la norma. Between them these cover most of what an answer on policy needs to say.
For argument, learn the language of degree and of trend, since this sub-theme is quantitative in substance even when you avoid figures. Degree: notablemente, considerablemente, ligeramente, apenas, en absoluto. Trend: ha aumentado, ha descendido, se mantiene, ha repuntado, se ha estancado. Comparison over time: en comparación con hace diez años, respecto a la generación anterior, a diferencia de sus padres. And the essential hedge for any claim about young people as a group: no todos los jóvenes, una parte importante de ellos, quienes se encuentran en situación de precariedad. Generalisation is the commonest weakness in answers on this topic.
Finally, register. Youth topics tempt candidates into slang, and while you must recognise colloquial Spanish - un curro for a job, la pasta for money, estar sin blanca for being broke, un pisito, un mileurista - your written answers should use the standard register. In speech a single colloquial item deployed knowingly can work well, especially if you flag it - lo que en España se llama coloquialmente un curro - because it shows range rather than carelessness. Beyond that, keep to el empleo, el sueldo, la vivienda, and let the argument carry the personality.
Worked example

From complaint to proposal: structuring an argument

Turn the bare claim Los jóvenes lo tienen muy difícil into an A-level paragraph that diagnoses, evidences, proposes and qualifies.

  1. 01Replace the complaint with a diagnosis

    La dificultad de la juventud española no es un estado de ánimo, sino el resultado de un mercado laboral dual y de un mercado de vivienda tensionado. Naming two mechanisms converts a lament into an analysis.

  2. 02Evidence each mechanism briefly

    La temporalidad afecta sobre todo a quienes acceden por primera vez al empleo, mientras que el alquiler absorbe una parte muy elevada de los salarios de entrada. Evidence should attach to the mechanism it supports.

  3. 03Propose with the subjunctive

    Por eso, muchas organizaciones piden que se amplíe el parque público de alquiler y que las prácticas dejen de ser gratuitas. Two subjunctives after a verb of demanding, and two concrete proposals.

  4. 04Qualify the proposal honestly

    Ahora bien, ninguna de esas medidas surtirá efecto de inmediato, y algunos economistas advierten de que regular los precios puede reducir la oferta. Acknowledging the strongest objection is what makes a proposal credible.

  5. 05Close with a conditional judgement

    En definitiva, sin una intervención sostenida en vivienda, cualquier mejora del empleo se traducirá sólo parcialmente en emancipación. The conclusion follows from the diagnosis rather than repeating it.

Result: La dificultad de la juventud española no es un estado de ánimo, sino el resultado de un mercado laboral dual y de un mercado de vivienda tensionado. La temporalidad afecta sobre todo a quienes acceden por primera vez al empleo, mientras que el alquiler absorbe una parte muy elevada de los salarios de entrada. Por eso, muchas organizaciones piden que se amplíe el parque público de alquiler y que las prácticas dejen de ser gratuitas. Ahora bien, ninguna de esas medidas surtirá efecto de inmediato, y algunos economistas advierten de que regular los precios puede reducir la oferta disponible. En definitiva, sin una intervención sostenida en vivienda, cualquier mejora del empleo se traducirá sólo parcialmente en emancipación.

Exam focus

  • Use verbs of demanding with the subjunctive (exigen que se regule, piden que se reduzca) for policy discussion (AO3).
  • Hedge generalisations about young people - una parte importante, quienes se encuentran en situación de precariedad (AO4).

Typical mistakes

  • Confusing la política (politics or a policy) with el político (a politician) and las políticas (policies).
  • Writing los jóvenes piensan que... as a claim about all young people; the mark scheme rewards hedged, evidenced statements.

Active revision

Escribe ocho frases en español sobre política juvenil y empleo: cuatro con verbos de exigencia o propuesta + subjuntivo y cuatro con expresiones impersonales o pasiva refleja.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

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

§ 05

En el examen: youth and politics in Papers 1 and 3#

●●●AdvancedLPAQA 7692 4.4 Paper 1 - Listening, reading and writingLPAQA 7692 4.6 Paper 3 - Speaking, part one

Key points

Material on this sub-theme arrives in Paper 1 as survey reports, interviews with young people, opinion columns on the generational divide, and news items on employment or housing measures. Survey reports are the most technically demanding, because they are full of quantitative language: la encuesta, la muestra, el porcentaje, el índice, la tasa, tres de cada diez, la mayoría absoluta, una tendencia al alza. Learn that vocabulary as a block, because a single misunderstood tres de cada diez can invalidate an answer that is otherwise perfect.
Interviews with young speakers bring the register problem in its sharpest form: fast speech, colloquial vocabulary, and heavy use of discourse markers. Prepare for o sea, es que, en plan - very frequent in current peninsular youth speech - la verdad, tío and tía as vocatives, and the intensifiers súper and mazo. You are not expected to produce these, and you should not; you are expected to follow a speaker who uses them constantly. Practise with real interviews rather than textbook recordings, since the gap between the two is largest precisely in this sub-theme.
For the speaking test, hold a spine of five items: the 15-M movement of 2011 and the debate about its consequences; the structural explanation of youth unemployment; la emancipación tardía and the housing mechanism behind it; the Chilean student mobilisations and the 2019 estallido social; and the environmental strand with its Latin American dimension. Add the reframing move - participation has changed channel rather than disappeared - and you can answer any card in this area analytically rather than autobiographically.
Two questions for the examiner that satisfy the criteria and open the discussion: ¿Cree usted que su generación tenía más oportunidades que la nuestra? and ¿Qué medida adoptaría usted si pudiera cambiar una sola cosa para los jóvenes? The second is particularly useful because the conditional invites a developed answer rather than a yes or no, and because it lets you respond in kind with your own conditional - yo, en su lugar, empezaría por la vivienda - which demonstrates exactly the structure this sub-theme tests.
Worked example

The summary question on a survey report

A reading text of about 300 words reports a survey of young Spaniards: their main worry is housing, they distrust political parties but say they would demonstrate, and a substantial group would consider emigrating. Write the 95-word summary in Spanish.

  1. 01Identify the three content points

    Housing as the leading concern; distrust of parties combined with willingness to mobilise; and openness to emigration. Note them in Spanish first - the apparent contradiction in the second point is the one candidates flatten.

  2. 02Report proportions faithfully but safely

    If the text gives figures, reproduce them exactly. If you are unsure of a number, use the safe quantifier: una amplia mayoría, casi la mitad, una parte considerable. Never round a figure you did not read.

  3. 03Preserve the contradiction

    Use a concessive connector to hold the second point together: desconfían de los partidos, si bien se declaran dispuestos a manifestarse. Flattening this into apathy would be a content error.

  4. 04Reformulate the survey vocabulary

    If the text says el 60 por ciento señala la vivienda como principal preocupación, write la vivienda encabeza la lista de inquietudes para seis de cada diez encuestados. The reformulation earns AO3 and proves comprehension.

  5. 05Re-read once for language only

    Check the agreement of encuestados, accents on percentages and on words such as jóvenes and según, and the subjunctive after any expression of willingness or doubt.

Result: Model summary (94 words): «La encuesta revela que la vivienda encabeza las preocupaciones de la juventud española, muy por delante del resto de cuestiones planteadas. El estudio detecta asimismo una desconfianza generalizada hacia los partidos políticos, si bien una amplia mayoría se declara dispuesta a participar en manifestaciones o a firmar peticiones, lo que los autores interpretan como un desplazamiento de la participación, y no como desinterés. Por último, una parte considerable de los encuestados contempla la posibilidad de emigrar si no mejoran sus expectativas laborales en los próximos años.»

Exam focus

  • Master the quantitative vocabulary of survey reports (la muestra, la tasa, tres de cada diez, al alza) before the exam (AO2).
  • Prepare for authentic youth speech markers (o sea, en plan, es que) in listening without importing them into your own production (AO1/AO3).

Typical mistakes

  • Answering a card on youth politics with your own school council experience; AO4 credits knowledge of Hispanic society.
  • Misreading tres de cada diez as thirty out of ten or as three per cent; it is three in ten.

Active revision

Busca una encuesta reciente en español sobre la juventud. Anota diez expresiones cuantitativas y redacta con cinco de ellas un párrafo de 100 palabras.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

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

Contents

Section -- / 05

    • 01Engagement or apathy: activismo o apatía●
    • 02Youth unemployment: el paro entre los jóvenes●
    • 03The society they want: su sociedad ideal◐
    • 04El léxico y los giros: the language of politics and work◐
    • 05En el examen: youth and politics in Papers 1 and 3●

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From notes into training

Today's Youth, Tomorrow's Citizens

Reinforce this topic with matching tasks from the question bank.

~24
min
4
Competencies
Practise

References & sources

Sources

AQA

  • AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - subject content
  • AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - grammar
  • AQA A-level Spanish (7692) specification - scheme of assessment

Department for Education

  • GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languages

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Monarchies and Dictatorships

EuraStudy·Notes T·10·MMXXVI

Carry on to the next topic — your learning path is kept.