Teaching and learning materials

The main goal of this activity is to introduce and familiarize the target students with some social norms of public behavior and rules of address in the Spanish culture (volume of speech, eye contact, etc.). It is principally oriented on Spanish foreign language students, preferably presented by a multinational group. The present task forms part of a series of activities aimed at teaching cultural aspects of the Spanish as foreign language (ELE), and their examples may be found within the mentioned link.
One of the purposes of the activity concerns students´ understanding, by means of consulting the working materials (pieces of texts proposed), of the regularity of the norms of social behavior among Spanish people and of their conception of politeness (on the example of the high volume of speech in public places), and further by making comparison with the politeness norms in the culture of origin. In this way, the activity works for improving the general knowledge of the students and their skills in oral interaction, as its realization requires verbal cooperation. As far as directly linguistic patterns are concerned, it worth mentioning enriching of the students´ vocabulary with words related to norms of social communication.
The other, more practical purpose of this activity consists in training students, by force of making them reflect and analyze different situations, in usage of two Spanish forms of address (tú and usted). The improving advantages of this part of the activity concern both relating of the definite contexts to the level of formality and necessary verbal forms of address, and practicing students´ ability to express oral speech in written form.
The realization of activity is suggested to be started with an introductory debate. It is first part refers to the norms of politeness practiced by the very students in their normal life and their possible idea about "non-politeness" (in fact, different politeness) of the Spaniards in the social contexts. A question list model is available for motivating the introductory task among the students.
The second part of the introductory debate is aimed to find out the knowledge students possess about the correct usage of "tú" and "usted" in different social contexts. In the same way, a question list model is available for making students (possibly grouped in couples) think about the election of the correct pronoun in varied communicative situations.
The realization of the very activity consists of 5 parts. The first one, which parts from the reading of a proposed text, deals with the topic of the volume of speech admitted as polite in different cultures. The second one refers to the correct usage of "tú" and "usted", which is practiced by means of making students attribute the usage of each one to different contexts. The third part is the continuation of the second one, and is based on reading of 5 pieces of texts (all of them available) both revealing and explaining the usage of "tú" and "usted" in dependence of the scope. The fourth part previews students´ intervention and expressing of their opinions about "tú" and "usted" usage. The fifth one finishes the activity and is oriented on animating students to write a composition about the topic (the full citation available with the link).
This activity is primarily oriented on A2 and higher levels.
In case of B2 and higher levels, it is suggested to make students compare the usage of "tú" and "usted" in Spain and in the countries of the Latin America.

Approach: Intercultural

Type of material: video/clip

Source:
Activity cerated by Dolores Soler-Espiauba Conesa, available on line:
http://cvc.cervantes.es/aula/didactired/anteriores/abril_06/03042006b.htm