I read an interesting chapter from a book about how to teach culture in the foreign language classroom. First of all, what is culture? Is it people? Beliefs? Literature? Music? Food? One of the research quotes that caught my attention came from Galloway (1984, 1985b). He mentions that culture is typically approached in 4 ways, such as: 
1. The Frankenstein Approach, where we select random cultural activities.
2. The 4-F Approach, getting its name from Folk dances, Festivals, Fairs, and Food. 
3. The Tour Guide Approach, where the emphasis is on monuments, rivers, and cities, and
4. The "By-the-way" Approach, where we use sporadic lectures or bits of behavior selected indiscriminately to emphasize sharp differences.

Regardless of what approach we take, we must keep in mind that culture is an essential part of foreign language instruction, and that it needs to be carefully planned to be incorporated effectively in a lesson. When we teach culture, we help students broaden their views of the world. We help reduce stereotypical misconceptions, and also help them understand their own cultural heritage.

Here are some of the ideas that can help you incorporate culture in the foreign language curriculum:

1. Use readings and realia to enliven a cultural topic.
2. Guide students to compare and contrast the target culture and their own (e.g. using a Venn diagram).
3. Have students develop culture clusters, and follow up with a dramatization or situational role-play.
4. Present students with situations where cultural misinterpretations are shown, and encourage discussion.
5. Develop culture mini-dramas in three to four episodes.
6. Guide students to derive cultural connotations by using word association, semantic mapping activities,  
    specific situations, and collages.
7. Make use of the artifact study strategy: Bring something from the target culture to class and have students 
     hypothesize, discuss, analyze, and reflect about the item.
8. Make use of proverbs to show differences in cultural perspectives.
9. Use humor to explore cross-cultural references. 

10. Use music, but go beyond the fill-in-the blanks format.

(A very special thanks to Dr. Moeller, for teaching me how to become a better language instructor).

In order to retain vocabulary, learners need to be provided with opportunities to process it, manipulate it, and use it in meaningful contexts. Using pictures and text is a great way to introduce vocabulary. It draws from the learner's background knowledge, has the potential of depicting real cultural information, and helps the teacher stay in the target language. Eventually, as the learner gets more familiar with the vocabulary, the text can be removed from the pictures. Although the free Spanish dialogues do not contain pictures, they now have a more interactive format. Students can listen and fill in the blanks, as well as use a dictionary provided to create more opportunities for incidental vocabulary acquisition to occur. Enjoy!

Interesting article:

"Using advanced tools such as magnetic resonance imaging, researchers are finding that writing by hand is more than just a way to communicate. The practice helps with learning letters and shapes, can improve idea composition and expression, and may aid fine motor-skill development..."

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What strategies have you used in class that have rocked your students' world?
I used a program called iMovie once to have my students create a movie using the present subjunctive. The main idea was to create a 2-3 minute movie about a wish they had. Some created it about their dream girl, boy, house, car, school, college, etc. The final product was fun and impressive. Send me an email if you would like to get the rubric I used.

What have you done in class that has rocked your students' world? Write your comments here!

We focused on the main verb tenses and moods, and recorded dialogues as authentic as possible to demonstrate how certain grammatical concepts are used. If you or your students are learning a specific verb tense, you may use the audio resources here to reinforce grammar knowledge. Use them as homework assignments, to play in class, to discuss idioms, cultural concepts, grammar, etc.

How are you using the audio tracks? Write your comments here!