A brief History of Spanish – Understanding the Language
The process of learning a language does not only consist of revision of grammar and vocabulary, it also involves an understanding and knowledge of the culture and traditions of that country in a much better way.
The more you know about these factors the deeper your linguistic immersion will be.
In the case of the Spanish language, it is even more important and relevant due to the diversity within the Spanish speaking countries – 21 countries in total in 4 continents (Europe, Africa, North and South America).
For these reasons the Year 5 and 6 students have been learning over the last few weeks about the different Spanish speaking countries around the world: Puerto Rico: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
They have been asked to choose their favorite country, and to do a simple immersion in a variety of topics such as the typical music, food or the most popular sport in the country of their choice.
The students even discussed some demographic and geographic aspects during their oral presentations: like the capital cities, total population or location on the map of that specific country.
They drew the flag of their chosen country and learned the names of several important, famous or relevant people that are from these countries. Sharing this information with the class enriched the whole experience.
To make learning a little bit more fun, the students held a competition playing the Rockalingua game “countries”, locating each of the 21 Spanish-speaking countries on the map.
These students correctly located all of them:
Year 6: Ben Van Der Westhuizen, Kyle Youlten and Darian Iyer.
Year 5: Ian Scrooby, Faith Chivaka , Ayesha Hassen, Iviwe Matakata, Treasure Daniel, Maia Davies, Saumya Maharaj, Tshegofatso Phalane, Gabriella Davids, Ronan Macey and Kaylah Leach.
Congratulations to all!
Profesor Vidal
Spanish Teacher