Instituto Cervantes

Instituto Cervantes

Founder(s)	Spanish government
Type	Cultural institution
Founded	May 11, 1991
Location	Alcalá, 49. Madrid
Key people	Carmen Caffarel (Director) Juan Carlos I of Spain (Honorary President)
Area served	Worldwide (20 countries)
Website	www.cervantes.es

The Cervantes Institute is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991.^[1] It is named after Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), the author of Don Quixote and perhaps the most important figure in the history of Spanish literature. The Cervantes Institute, a government agency, was modeled on the British Council and the German Goethe Institute, and is the largest organization in the world responsible for promoting the study and the teaching of Spanish language and culture.

This organization has branched out in over 20 different countries with 54 centres devoted to the Spanish and Hispanic American culture and Spanish Language.^[2] Article 3 of Law 7/1991, created by the Instituto Cervantes on March 21, explains that the ultimate goals of the Institute are to promote the education, the study and the use of Spanish universally as a second language, to support the methods and activities that would help the process of Spanish language education, and to contribute to the advancement of the Spanish and Hispanic American cultures throughout non-Spanish-speaking countries.

Functions

Cervantes Institute headquarters, in Madrid.

• It designs Spanish language courses, offering two kinds of courses: general and special.
• It offers the Diplomas of Spanish as Foreign Language (DELE) examinations on behalf of the Spanish Ministry of Education. This is an official qualification certifying levels of competence in the Spanish language, and is the only certificate for non-native Spanish speakers that is officially recognized in Spain.^[3]. The diplomas are subdivided into six levels, each one corresponding to a certain proficiency level as described by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2.
• It improves the methods of Spanish education.
  • On-line Spanish language learning environment Ex) AVE (Aula Virtual de Español)^[4]
  • Creating a social, cultural and educational environment in each center ^[4]
  • A student-centered plan, focusing on the dialogues between teacher and student over objectives and contents^[4]
• It supports Hispanists and "Hispanismo", which is the study of the culture of Spain and Hispanic America.
  • Sponsors lectures, book presentations, concerts, art exhibitions, The Spain Film Festival and Festival of Flamenco. Supported by other organizations and communities.^[2]
• It organizes and promotes the program to spread the Spanish language throughout the world.
  • The Institute works with Spain's national radio and television to deliver Spanish language courses.^[4]
  • Publications, on-line bibliographies, library holdings, the hosting of major conferences on the state of the Spanish language.^[4]
• It establishes libraries and centres.
• It also publishes the Anuario del español to analyze and report on the situation and development of the Spanish language in different places.
• It supports the Centro Virtual Cervantes on the internet since 1997.

Academic Program

General language courses are offered at four different levels, elementary, intermediate, advanced and high advanced.^[2]

1. Improving specific language skills, such as reading, speaking, and writing
2. Teaching Spanish for specific purposes, such as business, medical, legal, or translation
3. Learning about the literature and cultures of the Spanish-speaking countries
4. Preparation for Diplomas of Spanish as Foreign Language

The Cervantes Institute offers comprehensive Spanish language classes to

1. Develop the student's ability to use the language in a variety of contexts, paying special attention to the differences of Spanish accents.
2. To provide different resources, including Spanish on-line, to improve the teaching.
3. To allow the students to use any of the facilities of the Cervantes Institute around the world.
4. To issue Spanish language diplomas and certificates

Administration

The administration of the Cervantes Institute is subdivided into three parts. A commitment and interest in planning the activities and direction of the Institute are managed by a high-profile membership.^[4]

1. Patronato (Board of Trustees): The Cervantes Institute is overseen by its governing body, the Patronato. The Patronato normally includes the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I, as the President of Honor and the Spanish prime minister, as well as representatives from the world of culture and letters in Spain and in Latin America.^[4] The executive presidency is held by the Secretaries of State of Education and Science, Culture, the president and vice-president of the Council of Administration, the Director of the Institute, 25 elected members from cultural and language institutions. It gives general directions for the activities of the Institute and informs on its annual activities.^[4]
2. The Consejo de Administracion (Board of Directors) is a management body and approves the general plans and projects of the Institute. It consists of representatives from the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education, Culture and Sport, Treasury, and Home Affairs, as well as from the Patronato. This administration is presided by the Secretary of State of International Cooperation and consists of two vice-presidents (Undersecretary of the Science and Education Department and the Undersecretary of the Department of Culture), two advisers of the Patronato, and four advisers from the Secretaries of State, Education and Science, Culture and of Economy and Treasury and the Director of the Institute.^[4]
3. The Director is appointed by the Council of Ministers of Spain. The Director is in charge of guiding the management of the Institute, and other pertinent executive and administrative tasks.

Virtual presence

The Centro Virtual Cervantes is an online service that was created in December 1997 by the Instituto Cervantes of Spain to contribute to the diffusion of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures. It became one of the most important reference sites devoted to Spanish language and culture, having reached an average of over 100,000 visitors a month, including both professionals and the general public.^[5] It offers resources and services to teachers, students, translators, journalists and other professionals involved with the Spanish language, and as well as to Hispanists throughout the world, who study Hispanic cultures, and to any person who is interested in the language and Hispanic cultures.^[2] It also includes announcements of cultural events (Actos Culturales), four discussion forums, each of which focuses on a specific topic, and the language classroom, Aula de Lengua, designed for both teachers and learners of Spanish.^[5] The Instituto Cervantes also has a virtual presence in the 3D virtual world Second Life.^[2]

Centro de Formación de Profesores

On December 13, 2004, the Cervantes Institute formed its Centro de Formación de Profesores in its Head Office, located in Alcalá de Henares, where Cervantes was born. This institution was founded to encourage the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language and to provide useful resources to its members. Throughout the year, it organizes the specific activities and programs for the center,with several different goals, which include teaching, providing the resources to the teachers to use in their education field, and developing specialised knowledge of the Spanish language for educational purposes. The Center supports the future teachers of Spanish through its 'Master of Education in Spanish as a Foreign Language', in collaboration with the International University Menéndez Pelayo. For teachers already involved in teaching, the Center provides advanced activities that produce a deeper knowledge, focusing on research or discussion in the classroom, and improving the students’ skills in Spanish language for them to become responsive in any communicational situations.^[2]

Free Translator Service

The Automatic Translator Service of the Cervantes Institute, "Portal de las Tecnologías Lingüisticas en España", was launched by the Cervantes Institute on January 10, 2005.^[2][6] It is a free service of machine translation sponsored by Telefónica. Since its launch, demand has steadily increased monthly to 55%,^[6] and it has performed more than 582,000 free translations.^[6] The Cervantes Institute's purpose in creating this service was to facilitate the access of Spanish to those information technology contents developed in other languages, and so people who speak other languages can have access to contents that are only available in Spanish.^[6] This service permits translation of texts and text files, as well as web pages, from Spanish to Catalan, French, Galician, English or Portuguese and vice versa.^[2] The pairs of language percentages used are as follows: English-Spanish, 23.47% of the total; Spanish-Catalan, 21.12%; Spanish-English, 13.64%; Portuguese-Spanish, 12.63%; Spanish-Portuguese, 10.39%; Catalan-Spanish, 6.48%; Spanish-French, 6.24%, and French-Spanish, 6.03%.^[6]

Publications

Since 1998 the Instituto Cervantes has published the annual El español en el mundo highlighting the state of Spanish in the world, and current trends. The Instituto has also run the Internet-based Centro Virtual Cervantes since 1997.

Recognition

In 2005, along with the Alliance française, the Società Dante Alighieri, the British Council, the Goethe-Institut and the Instituto Camões, the Instituto Cervantes was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award for outstanding achievements in communications and the humanities.

Locations

Frankfurt

Paris

New York

The Instituto Cervantes operates Centros Cervantes (full-fledged centres), and Aulas Cervantes (smaller "lecture halls"), as well as a network of associated institutions. These are Centros Acreditados (within Spain) and Centros Asociados (outside Spain). Its locations can be found:

• Centros Cervantes:
  •  Europe
    •  Austria (Vienna)
    •  Belgium (Brussels)
    •  Bulgaria (Sofia)
    •  Czech Republic (Prague)
    •  France (Bordeaux, Lyon, Paris, Toulouse)
    •  Germany (Berlin, Bremen, Frankfurt am Main, Hamburg, Munich)
    •  Greece (Athens)
    •  Hungary (Budapest)
    •  Ireland (Dublin, see 53°20′31″N 6°15′06″W / 53.341975°N 6.251575°W / 53.341975; -6.251575)
    •  Italy (Milan, Naples, Palermo, Rome)
    •  Netherlands (Utrecht)
    •  Poland (Warsaw, Kraków)
    •  Portugal (Lisbon)
    •  Romania (Bucharest)
    •  Sweden (Stockholm)
    •  United Kingdom (Leeds, London, Manchester)
  •  Algeria (Algiers, Oran)
  •  Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Brasília, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Porto Alegre, Recife, Curitiba)
  •  China (Beijing)
  •  Egypt (Cairo, Alexandria)
  •  Israel (Tel Aviv)
  •  Japan (Tokyo)
  •  Jordan (Amman)
  •  Lebanon (Beirut)
  •  Morocco (Casablanca, Fes, Rabat, Tangier, Tétouan, Marrakech)
  •  Philippines (Manila)
  •  Russia (Moscow)
  •  Serbia (Belgrade)
  •  Syria (Damascus)
  •  Tunisia (Tunis)
  •  Turkey (Istanbul)
  •  United States (Albuquerque, Chicago, New York, Seattle, U. of Washington)

• Centros Acreditados
  •  Spain See http://centrosasociados.cervantes.es/CAcreditados.asp

• Centros Asociados:
  •  Europe
    •  Ireland (Cork, see University College Cork, Department of Hispanic Studies)^[7][8]

• Aulas Cervantes:
  •  Algeria (Annaba, Tlemcen)
  •  Australia (Sydney)
  •  Bulgaria (Sofia)
  •  Croatia (Zagreb)
  •  India (New Delhi)
  •  Indonesia (Jakarta)
  •  Morocco (Nador)
  •  Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)
  •  Slovakia (Bratislava)
  •  Slovenia (Liubliana)
  •  Vietnam (Hanoi)

See also

• Hispanist
• Queen Sofia Spanish Institute
• Miguel de Cervantes Prize

References

1. ^ Cervantes Institute New York
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Instituto Cervantes website
3. ^ Wikipedia Cervantes Institute in Spanish
4. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Thinkspain News Feed
5. ^ ^{a b} El Pais Edición Impresa
6. ^ ^{a b c d e} [1] Encyclopædia Britannica
7. ^ [2] Department Website
8. ^ [3] Cervantes Website

External links

• Spanish course online. Spanish course online Hola, ¿qué tal?
• DELE. Diplomas in Spanish website
• Hispanismo website, resources for Spanish teachers around the world
• Cervantes Institute on Encyclopædia Britannica
• Spanish and Empire
• Journals, A review of Centro Virtual Cervantes