Teaching Culture: Beyond Language
Deborah Peck
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Give FeedbackSection I—El Vocabulario
Students’ first homework assignment should be to look up names of Hispanic products in the supermarket, names of wines or liqueurs, Hispanic recording artists, Hispanic restaurants. They can cut the names out from magazines or newspapers and paste them or write them on the title page of “El Vocabulario” section. The next day in class, the teacher should help students to pronounce these names. The benefits of this approach are immeasurable. Students immediately focus on phonology and oral production without having to worry about memorizing lexical items at the same time. Secondly, students see the immediate usefulness of their foreign language class. Students love to leave class the first days with a list of words they have already mastered. Naturally, this helps to increase student motivation and gives important positive feedback.