Teaching and learning materials

The activity in question is oriented towards students of Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE). The origin of these students, and whether they study Spanish in Spain or outside Spain are of no consequence to the original aims of the activity, , The principal goal of the activity is to familiarize learners with the particularities of Spanish culture through a comparison with the culture of the learners themselves. The activity also aims to free learners of prejudices and stereotypes concerning the so called “average Spanish person” through a study of Spanish media.
This activity forms part of the series of Intercultural ELE learning (together with "Tócame, Roque", "Lo que se come, se cría", "De tú a tú"). This learning series seeks to improve both the sociocultural learning strategies and the students´ skills and knowledge about Spanish cultural realities.
In order to do this activity, the teacher needs to prepare video material related to the social norms and behavior of a typical Spanish person in his/her everyday life (the author of the activity recommends sources for these materials). The introduction into the activity supposes a common discussion among students and their teacher about the general ideas that students possess of a "typical Spaniard", the subsequent consultation of mass-media and video materials so that the students can compare reality with their views, and the final comparison of the Spanish cultural reality and the cultural reality of the students´ country of origin. The activity entails students´ reading of a newspaper text about a typical Spaniard (the text available on the link), their conceptualization of it and their final comparison of the Spanish and native cultures in view of different and dominant social problems.
The activity in question is essentially based on the comparison(s) that students establish between Spanish and the other cultures, and these reflections lead them to be aware of sociocultural distances and to sharpen their perception of the specific characteristics of other cultures.
The activity contributes to the improvement of the reading comprehension, oral expression and written expression. It may be repeated as many times as necessary since many topics require elucidation as far as sociocultural aspects of the Spanish language are concerned. The activity is better applied in a big group which may be divided into small subgroups of 3-4 (or even couple), and will produce better results at higher levels (B2 and beyond).

Approach: Intercultural

Type of material: video/clip

Source:
Activity created by Dolores Soler-Espiauba, available on line:
http://cvc.cervantes.es/aula/didactired/anteriores/mayo_07/28052007.htm