La Literatura - Written Culture

 Virtual Spain

Here is a comprehensive website for famous Spanish literature.  It is best suited for advanced classes, though due to the variety of forms of literature, some of the material could be used for intermediate classes.  It has everything from short love poems of the middle ages translated into simplified Spanish to biographies of authors in the period of modernism.  Many authors are listed without websites, so for teachers who love this kind of material, you might want to find new authors in the list to read and share with students. 

El Arte - Culture in any Language

Why can artists and musicians be  internationally renowned?  Because they speak a different, universal language for all to see and hear.  Diego Rivera was a famous Mexican artist in the early 1900's and was influenced by greats like Picasso and Cezanne.  Here is an endless pictoral gallery of his work.  Diego Rivera Paintings

One way to use art as a language instruction or assessment tool is to have students describe some kind of picture in the second language.  Why not include pictures that are culturally relevant to the language being spoken?  For beginner classes, have students ask and answer eachother's questions about paintings of famous artists by using a small set of newly learned vocabulary.  For advanced classes, have students compare and contrast paintings, interpret them, relate them to daily life, explain the historical background of  them, etc.  For more input, find explanations of the paintings and have students look up new vocabulary of the paragraphs.

Intercambio - Sharing Language through Video

Fluent Future Videos

This site is especially useful for learning new grammar points and vocabulary--language skills that are necessary for cultural competence.  The site itself is meant to be a language exchange platform.  If one signs up, there is access to native speakers as language exchange partners on the web, but for classroom purposes it would be better to stick with the instructional videos as supplements to a class lesson.  There is a long list of videos to choose from.  I recommend the ones that are rated with four stars.  In the best video, a man instructs how  to use the command form by giving commands to his dog.  It is educational and entertaining, and it has meaningful delivery, so it maintains the attention of the students. 

¡Que Rico! La Cultura Atra Vez de la Comida

Food is one of the central aspects of any culture. It is not only fun to eat and cook, it is also fun to talk about.  The food of the Spanish and Latin world is diverse, delicious, and unique. If you want get any native speaker talking, ask them about food and they are sure to have an opinion about it. 

Cocina Hispana

Here is a clip taken from a college Spanish class with students who utilize their Spanish to explain how to cook common dishes found in Latin America. This could be used as a model for your own class.  Have your students cook a dish and present it to the class.  Teach certain phrases to aid them in explaining how to cook like, ¨Primero, preparamos,¨ ¨Vamos a poner,¨¨Mezclamos,¨etc.  The following are websites in Spanish with different recipes from many countries to choose from.

Sabores del Peru

Recetas de Comida Chilena

Recetas Típicas de Costa Rica

Cocina Cubana

Recetas Favoritas de España

¡Buen Provecho!

La Arquitectura es Cultura - Cities and Monuments in Spain

If my blog is actually representing itself as a site for cultural competence, the first place that it should look for culture is in the architecture in the cities.  The more one knows about the famous monuments of the world, the more interesting conversations can be in the target language with native speakers.  There is nothing in the world quite like the Sagrada de Familia Cathedral or the architecture of Gaudi found in Barcelona.

Ciudades y Monumentos en Espana

This clip has music to keep students' entertained, writing to keep them learning new vocabulary, and content knowledge that is interesting because it deals with tourist site they might be inspired to go see someday.  There are many ways this could be used as a springboard to start a lesson depending on whether you want to focus on listening, reading, writing, or speaking.  All of those could be included in the lesson.  Have students listen for certain phrases in the music and raise their hand when they recognize them.  Get them to read the text and answer questions about it after viewing the video twice, either written or orally.  Have students write down five new vocabulary words they do not know, look them up or ask the teacher, and practice them orally with a partner to remember them.  

Videos in Spain

This short clip breifly illustrates the excitement of Christmas in Spain by ringing bells and watching clocks.  Not only is it informal, but it is rather silly, and the language is simple enough for beginning to intermediate speakers. If you feel in a silly mood, this clip might work perfectly for the right class who is receptive to silliness when studying Spanish.

Las Campanadas

Here is another video with subtitles in Spanish.  It is about Spanish eating and working schedules and how they are distinctive from other cultures.  The video paints the Spanish use of time in a negative light, so a good class discussion questions might be, ¨Do you think the Spanish working schedule is really as negative as the video portrays it to be?  It is higher level and almost news-like, so I suggest that a teacher pick out vocabulary words to have students review before the viewing so that they have a better grasp of the material.  Listening to this video several times would probably be appropriate for intermediate students, and having students pick out words they do not know and defining them would be a good vocabulary building exercise.

Horarios España