Culture
‘Culture hides much more than it reveals’
Culture encompasses education, art, music, language, food, religion and history. It is a people’s ‘way of life,’ among other traits. However, these traits are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’. There are also beliefs, customs, psychological and physical values that are hidden in the depths of culture, amidst many others.
The materials we use for class are rich in culture. These materials contain cultural values, idioms, and standard expressions not only related to Peru but also to some other countries in Latin America and Spain. Within the Spanish language, as in other languages, there are a variety of proverbs, idioms, genre, humor, social status, political background, pragmatics, taboos, superstitions, traditions, connotative meaning and roles among others.
When analyzing cultural materials for class, we are aware that using cultural components in a content-based class will enable students to find a natural way to acquire a second language.
In some classes, we focus on three types of literature: written literature, song lyrics and movie texts. We see the high value of approaching literature in the content-based language learner because it immerses students in a real world of language.
During class students will feel encouraged by using, for example, literature or songs. Literature or songs are authentic material which is embedded in the culture. This will promote in students the reflection of their own personal experience, opinions and feelings while keeping them actively involved (Lazar, 1993). During class, the teacher has the purpose of showing a set of authentic materials in every technique or activity while learning a second language. As an example of this, let’s choose an activity with a song:
Songs can approach cultural topics as well as individual thoughts and empower and motivate students to keep on learning the target language. It is also possible to do activities in class, in groups, or individually. Through the lyrics of the music it is possible to offer inductive grammar tasks as well as syntactic forms. All in all, music welcomes people and people welcome songs.
‘authentic materials promote greater communicative competence’ Gilmore (2011)
Let us choose a song with the topic of Love
We would select this subject because it is a topic that is related to everyone among all kinds of love. Love has the implication of empowerment, but also loss; it entails illusion, but it also brings disillusion. Moreover, this topic can be controversial as people from different cultures have different ways to show, give and receive love (emotions and feelings). It is important to keep in mind the students’ age and culture, so the selected material is appealing for the students.
Literary aspects.
We use the lyrics of a song with an easy melody to follow so students have less difficulty adapting to the melody of the song. Love is a rich and thematic topic as it is very complex and dynamic. It is itself not always an easy theme to address nor an easy experience to enjoy all the time. In the experiencing of loving someone, there are moments of deep sadness as well as happiness. The lyrics should be easy to pronounce and in an easy pace for the student to repeat. Repetition should be constant in the song but with varying intonation which encourages singing.
Thematic richness
We believe it is important to present situations that are close to reality so that students can connect to their own lives as well as find meaning in the activity. Love is an element of every human being and it also involves a lot of difficulties. The linguistic features should not be complicated, and should use repetition and simple syntax construction as well as simple verbs in different tenses.
Many empirical studies have confirmed positive results increased by listeners and readers who are given opportunities to interact with authentic oral or written text. Students who often listen to authentic oral sections in radio broadcast, television, or other media demonstrate significantly better listening comprehension than do students who do not interact or use authentic materials’ segments (Bacon, 1992b; Herron and Seay, 1991 as cited in Shrum & Glisan 2010)
Cultural aspects:
With love songs there are psychological descriptions of the characters. Different norms of directness, different cultures and languages have varying routines for everyday social interaction (De Capua, 2018).
The language learning aspect
of the material generally presents a continuing sequence of phrases of the song that are coherent. It is easy to follow phrase by phrase to understand the whole context of the song. The vocabulary should be easy to follow and the structure and cohesion must build in a very understandable way.