Cervantes E.I at FIAPE

This last April, Cervantes Escuela Internacional had the pleasure to attend to the  IV International Congreso of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Santiago de Compostela (Galicia)  with the title: La enseñanza del español en un mundo intercultural. Jornadas pedagógicas. (The Teaching of Spanish in the Intercultural World. Pedagogical Workshops)

We had the opportunity to teach a workshop entitled: RENOVANDO LA CLASE DE ELE: LA INTERCULTURALIDAD EN EL AULA (RENEWING THE SFL LESSON: INTERCULTURALITY IN THE CLASSROOM). This workshop aimed to show teachers that linguistic competence alone is not enough to speak a language. Good language teaching must give a prominent role to the cultural component as an indispensable element in communicative competence.

Riley makes some reflections on what Culture is:

1. KNOW THAT political or religious knowledge, education, geography, history… of a given society (CULTURE in capitals)
2. KNOW OF the events, phenomenons and worries of that society .
3. KNOW HOW that society acts (how it makes phones calls, how it dances…) and how it speaks (how it thanks, greets, tells a story, communicates with its superiors…)

Using these 3 concepts as our starting points, we showed different activities and games during the workshop which can act as a guideline for teachers who want to integrate the cultural component in their lessons.  

If you have any experiences to share with us on how to better integrate culture in you Spanish language lessons, we would be happy to hear them!

Cervantes E.I.