Why and How to Teach Culture in a World Language Class

Across levels, culture has been traditionally the last pages in the textbook that teachers never have time to teach, and cultural projects have traditionally been a break from grammar lessons; but culture in language learning should not be an expendable fifth skill apart from speaking, reading, writing and listening. It should be integrated in the curriculum from the beginning. As Kramsch, 1993 says it should be “ready to unsettle the good language learners when they expect it least, making evident the limitations of their hard-won communicative competence, challenging their ability to make sense of the world around them.” From teaching the time in lower levels and relating it to the different times Spanish people eat, to teaching idiomatic sentences and refrains in higher levels, language and culture are very much entangled. Cultural units such as film, music, or art not only develop an appreciation for the larger contributions of Spanish and Latin American cultural manifestations to the world, but also use the language as a vehicle of communication. The goal of this unit is to demonstrate to foreign language teachers how they can incorporate the teaching of culture into their foreign language classrooms, and teach language at the same time. Examples of activities are given in Spanish