How to maximise cultural capital in a broad and balanced curriculum

Culture is a wide term, which embraces different aspects including social behaviour, institutions, and norms found in a group of dynamic people. In addition to the language, it comprises knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in that society.

Students learn a new language to form relationships and to be able to understand other points of view and experiences to enrich their own lives. Language users do not learn languages just to learn vocabulary to form sentences; learning the structure of the language is just the starting point of being an effective communicator and relationship-builder in the foreign language that you are learning.

As culture is not limited to language, it is vital that students learn how to understand and interpret others in their own social frameworks.

Develop the habit of exploring culture in your everyday lessons

To ensure we are teaching both the language and the culture, when planning our lessons, we can think about different ways to establish links between both aspects: language and culture.  These are some suggestions:

1)       Include in your resources images related to the Hispanic world. For instance when teaching the family you could include pictures of the Royal family; when teaching places in town you could include images of famous museums, shops, squares, etc. 

2)       Broaden students’ horizons by introducing the culture of any of the 20 countries where Spanish is their official and unique language. You could discuss the weather, food, habits, sports, etc. Avoid stereotyping people.

3)       Find similarities and differences between the UK or the country you are teaching and one of the Spanish-speaking countries. To avoid overloading students with many examples, choose between 3 and 5 similarities or differences, depending on ability. Remember that in most of the Spanish-speaking countries, religious events are still relevant.  

4)       Promote critical thinking by asking students to find explanations regarding why there are those differences as well as those similarities.

5)       Identify a list of key vocabulary and expressions that you can also use when teaching other topics. This is a great opportunity to do retrieval practice, which helps with motivation as well as increasing students’ fluency.

For example:

En España al igual que en Inglaterra durante los festivales hay fuegos artificiales.

En Argentina como en Inglaterra existe las cuatro estaciones.

 

Organising a yearly calendar to promote cultural capital across the school

 

To develop cultural capital across the school you can identify an activity that can be carried out with your students either every month, every half-term or every term, depending on your time, resources and curriculum. Here are some examples of what we do at my school.

      SEPTEMBER – A welcome and greetings wall

At the start of the academic year, students should be positive and full of energy. You can select a wall and ask students to write short messages in Spanish, greeting and welcoming each other. They can also write positive messages about what they like at the start of the academy year, a comment about their holidays and their wishes for the new academic year.

If you teach in Europe, you can use this wall to ask students to write messages in different languages to celebrate the European Day of Languages.

       

   OCTOBER – 12 October: The meeting of two cultures  

To celebrate the discovery of America you can organise a poster competition. Ask students to research a Spanish-speaking country and use the information to produce a cultural poster. Students can write the main content in English and include some key words in Spanish. 

You could speak to the canteen at your school so they can offer some typical food and drink from Spain or from Latin America.

        

  NOVEMBER - The Day of the Dead  

Organise a facemask competition. Students can produce their own mask using a variety of materials.

Speak to the canteen so they can offer some typical Mexican food. Discuss food options in lessons and ask students to provide justified opinions.

To show your enthusiasm, you could come to school with your face painted. I have done this at my school for the last two years and students loved and appreciate this commitment!

           

     DECEMBER - Christmas   

In addition to a traditional Christmas card competition (in my school last Christmas we received more than 350 entries), you could organise a cultural Advent Calendar. This could be done by identifying relevant cultural aspects related to Christmas for each day.

You could also teach a couple of verses of a popular Christmas Carol. Choose a carol that has a lot of repetition to make it accessible to pupils. Then, you can select some brave students to perform it during assembly. If you start teaching one verse per lesson, starting after the October half term, students will be ready to perform it in December, without adding additional work.

      

  JANUARY - Wise Men  

Speak to your Technology department and organise a “Roscón de Reyes” competition. This activity can be fun and creative.

You can also ask students to become wise poets and organise a “Wise Men Poetry competition.” Students can write a stanza for a poem related to the Wise Men celebration. To encourage students to write it, you can give them the start of each verse.

Alternatively, students can identify their own opening and then finish each verse to complete the stanza.

Students can use their creativity to present the poem in an interesting way by doing a calligram.

     

  FEBRUARY - St. Valentine’s   

Students can produce traditional St. Valentine’s cards. In addition to this, you could create a love and friendship tree. Students can write short messages in the target language to friends and teachers. This is a great activity to develop community spirit.   

                       

MARCH - Become An Artist     

You can celebrate the arrival of spring with better weather and longer days. It is an ideal time to talk about the weather and various activities that can be done outdoors with family and friends. You could organise an art competition.

To cater for all abilities students can use technology, if they wish. The website https://wordart.com/ is an ideal resource (it is free) as students can input the vocabulary, then decide shape, colours, fonts, layouts, etc. When pressing the menu tabs at the bottom students can have a masterpiece of art.

           

APRIL - Easter Hunting

You could organise a treasure hunt. Give students a sheet to label in Spanish  of some important Easter symbols. Pupils go for a word Easter hunting and find the answers on the eggs around the school. Once they have completed it, they hand it to you saying “Felices Pascuas”. Their name would be entered to take part in the raffle of a big chocolate egg or another prize that you consider appropriate for the occasion.

    

     MAY - A Magazine Of My Learning

Ask students to use the content you are teaching to create a magazine. They can include images to make their work well presented. They can use Canva or other software they are familiar with.

 

  

       JUNE - Tongue Twister Competition

Being close to the end of the academic year, students should have developed a good knowledge of the language so you can consolidate phonics in a fun way by organising a tongue twister completion. This will help students to become fluent and confident using Spanish.

   

A compilation of tongue twisters can be found soon in this blog, CULTURE section.

      JULY - Project Time – Las Postales  

Give to students a list of famous holiday destinations. Ask them to research one of them and then ask them to produce a postcard for a friend or a family member. You can give them a template, or students can design their own. They need to imagine they are in the place! 

  

    

I hope these ideas will help you to organise some nice activities in your school to promote cultural capital. When planning, it is important to bear in mind time and resources to ensure the activity to be carried out is a success.

Bibliography

• Toppan Digital Language. "Why Is Culture Important in Language Learning?" Available at: https://toppandigital.com/translation-blog/culture-important-language-learning/  
• Clear Words Translations. "Learning a Language." Available at: http://clearwordstranslations.com/language/es/learning-a-language/  
• FluentU. "Language and Culture: The Interconnectedness." Available at: https://www.fluentu.com/blog/language-and-culture/  
• Language Trainers. "Why Is It Important to Learn Culture While Learning a Language?" Available at: https://www.languagetrainers.co.uk/blog/why-is-it-important-to-learn-culture-while-learning-a-language/  
•  Language Magazine. "Blurring the Line Between Language and Culture." Available at: https://www.languagemagazine.com/blurring-the-line-between-language-and-culture/  
• Day Translations. "Understanding Culture." Available at: https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/understanding-culture/  
• Duolingo Blog. "How Culture Impacts Language Learning." Available at: https://blog.duolingo.com/how-culture-impacts-language-learning/  
• Ojeda, S.R. (2023) "The Cultural Comparison: Parts and Practice." Available at: https://srojeda.com/2023/03/26/the-cultural-comparison-parts-and-practice/  
• Gymglish Blog. (2020) "The Importance of Culture in Language Learning." Available at: https://blog.gymglish.com/2020/09/09/importance-culture-language-learning