Teaching South American Culture in Spanish: An Argentine Model for Secondary Schools

The purpose of this study was to develop teaching units pertaining to various aspects of Argentinian life, history and culture for use at the secondary school level. A second dimension of the study applied to foreign language education research in an educational setting designed to test the significance and effectiveness of the teaching units. With the purpose of giving the students an indispensable background to an understanding of the country and its people, two units on the geography and history of Argentina were utilized for instruction. A selection of 300 slides related to the themes of the units accompanied the introduction and the explanations. The emphasis in the units was on culture. These units were taught to a class of nineteen Spanish III students to test the significance and effectiveness of the material. Although the results of the posttest were disappointing to the researcher, the test may be profitably used in a number of ways: (1) for determining student achievement, (2) for checking the efficiency of instruction, (3) for assigning school marks, (4) for analyzing pupil and class ethnocentrism, language ability and cultural awareness, and (5) for motivation of student effort. As indicated in the findings of this study, students are poorly informed about Argentinian history and culture or the geography of South America in general. It is recommended that foreign language educators develop ways of incorporating important cultural information on South American countries into their curriculum.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Martinez, Olga Aida

• Education, Secondary

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8502237

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/68958