Why cultural projects should be included as part of the curriculum when teaching languages

CULTURE AND LANGUAGE

The aim of including cultural projects in languages lessons is to promote the learning of the language in a practical and creative way. Projects are a great tool to carry on learning a second language in a different way and they can be a powerful teaching method to motivate students as they show novelty and creativity. Projects allow variety especially when teaching grammar and vocabulary become repetitive.

A cultural project is an activity that is assigned to students to be developed during a certain period of time. They can be used to tackle different linguistic abilities as well as different areas such as listening, reading, writing, speaking and translation. Projects also promote critical thinking and independent work as students will need to carry out research about a topic and then use that information to produce an outcome. They also promote teamwork and cross curriculum content as pupils can use their ICT and other subjects’ knowledge and skills to present the product.

The outcome of the project

The outcome of the project should be presented in the target language so pupils can use the language they have learnt freely, in an everyday situation, to improve communication skills and confidence using the language. However, if the project is produced both in English and in Spanish, for instance, they will also develop translation skills as well as cultural awareness.

The outcome of the project can take different forms too. Students can produce a PowerPoint presentation, an informative leaflet, a magazine, an essay or a short story, a play, a quiz, a video, a game, a poem, an oral presentation, a worksheet, a menu, a song, etc. When organising projects, teachers should be flexible and enable students to produce what they want, within reason. The most important thing is that pupils get engaged and show commitment to accomplish their project objectives.

What to take into account when working with projects.     

•  Ensure cultural relevance. Projects must be linked with the curriculum and should promote language and cultural learning.

• The level of difficulty should be appropriate for the ability and level of pupils. If the project is too easy students get bored and feel unchallenged. If it is too difficult, they will get demoralised, do not make progress and they do not enjoy doing it.

• Make sure students have relevant resources available to complete the project as well as technology as required. Provide relevant sources to gather information.

• Establish clear and reasonable deadlines for the project to be completed by.

• Consider students’ interests. If they find a topic interesting, they will get motivated and they will learn more from the experience.

Example of projects

I am going to provide some ideas regarding how to include projects in lessons. If you want to have my resources, please contact me and I will be more than happy to email you schemes of work and a good range of resources that I have created.

My favourite celebrity

The new GCSE specification in England (first examination in the summer 2026) includes a Celebrity culture topic. This gives teachers the opportunity to develop projects so that their students can improve their knowledge of the person they admire.

There are several idols in the Hispanic world, especially in the field  of sport and music. Students are normally familiar with the names and jobs of most of them. The following maps show some interesting celebrities both from Spain and Latin America.

 

I have delivered this project in my school and have show cased Messi. I start the lesson with a discussion regarding who is Messi as most students have already got some good knowledge of his life and achievements.

To improve their knowledge about his personal life, I show them the documentary “Lionel Messi – Football’s Greatest.”  CLICK ON HERE. After watching the documentary students in groups complete a quiz.  

 

Then I work with students to produce a short presentation about Messi, including key information. I will increase complexity, according to what students have learnt. This is an example of the presentations for each year.

Año 7	Año 8	Año 9
Se llama Messi y tiene 35 años. Su cumpleaños es el 24 de junio. Messi es alto y delgado. También tiene el pelo marrón y los ojos marrones. Además, tiene barba y bigote. Me encanta Messi porque es trabajador y serio. Messi tiene sus dos padres, dos hermanos y una hermana. Adicionalmente tiene una esposa que se llama Antonella Roccuzzo, también tiene tres hijos. Messi es mi jugador de fútbol favorito y me encanta.	Messi tiene 35 años de edad y es un jugador de fútbol argentino que juega para el Barcelona. Cuando Messi era niño era de baja estatura porque tenía problemas de déficit de la hormona de crecimiento. Messi es considerado como el mejor jugador del mundo. Empezó a jugar en el equipo Barcelona cuando tenía dieciocho años y jugó allí por veinte años. Me encanta Messi puesto que es listo y tiene una familia muy bonita.	Mi ídolo favorito se llama Messi. Nació en Rosario, un pueblo localizado en Argentina. Messi es un jugador de fútbol profesional y juega para el equipo que se llama Barcelona. Messi ha marcado más de 700 goles y ha ganado muchos premios por ejemplo el Balón de Oro, la Bota de Oro y mejor jugador tanto de la Liga de Campeones y de la Copa América en el 2021. En mi opinión Messi es el mejor jugador de toda la historia.

After showing students an example of the type of outcome that is expected, pupils choose a celebrity for their project. Some successful projects include worksheets, quizzes, and posters.

My favourite festival

To introduce the project, I choose a festival and show students a short video clip. Then I give pupils a list of festivals and provide a brief explanation about them. Students carry out some preliminary research before choosing the festival they are going to research to carry out the project.  

My students have successfully produced promotional leaflets, posters and PowerPoint presentations including relevant images and videos.

 ·         Día de los muertos - CLICK ON HERE  

·         Día de los muertos – CLICK ON HERE

·         La Tomatina – CLICK ON HERE  

·         Los Sanfermines – CLICK ON HERE  

·         Las Fallas – CLICK ON HERE  

·         Los Castellers  - CLICK ON HERE  

·         La Feria de Abril – CLICK ON HERE  

·         La Semana Santa  - CLICK ON HERE  

·         El Carnaval de Cádiz  - CLICK ON HERE   

·         Las noches de San Juan – CLICK ON HERE  

·         La ferida de las flores – CLICK ON HERE

My favourite typical Hispanic food

To introduce the topic, pupils watch “Spanish Food Safari – Spain Food Documentary.”  CLICK ON HERE. Then complete a worksheet that includes questions regarding ingredients, name of dishes, etc. I provide a short explanation regarding how to make churros and then give a list of some food they can research. For example:  

 

Some of this food can be found in different countries, for instance las empanadas are typical in Colombia and Venezuela. Also, el tamal is famous in both countries but in Venezuela it is called hallaca.

Successful projects that I have seen include menus, recipes and also an informative leaflet saying if the food is healthy or unhealthy.

My favourite comic

I introduce the topic with a short task such as these listed below. Then students choose one of the comics to gather research for their project. Successful projects include a short comic, a leaflet and creative pictures of the characters incorporating key phrases from the characters in Spanish.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favourite city or Hispanic country

 I introduce the project by showing a videoclip of Madrid “Travel Guide 2018.” CLICK ON HERE. Then students complete a quiz.

Students identify a city in the Hispanic world for their project. Some of my students have produced interesting oral presentations, short travel guides, maps, pictures exhibition including famous monuments.

You can also ask students to choose a Hispanic Speaking Country, identify one important aspect (food, famous historical places, famous people, what they produce) and design an informative leaflet.

To study a film

There are several suitable films to be used to develop projects. For instance: Valentino, Coco, Encanto, The book of life. Esmeralda Salgado has produced great resources to teach Encanto. CLICK ON HERE to find her resources.

To finish, I would like to share with you Mr Diego Ojedas’s webinar CLICK ON HERE where he shows examples of different projects developed by his students at his school. I enjoyed watching a videoclip that one student produced about Shakira (minute 28:00) and another one where a student produced a project about their favourite videogame “Super Mario Bros.” (minute 32:55)

¡Mucha suerte con los proyectos! A real creative way to make teaching and learning fun and interesting.