Making Authentic Cultural and Linguistic Connections

Making Authentic Cultural and Linguistic ConnectionsAuthor(s): Susan KnightSource: Hispania, Vol. 77, No. 2 (May, 1994), pp. 288-294Published by: American Association of Teachers of Spanish and PortugueseStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/344514 .

Accessed: 19/12/2014 09:19

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserveand extend access to Hispania.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Fri, 19 Dec 2014 09:19:35 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aatsp

http://www.jstor.org/stable/344514?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


PEDAGOGY: COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES

Prepared by Robert A. Quinn

Making Authentic Cultural and Linguistic Connections

Susan Knight

Central Mich4ran University

Abstract: To make a course on Peninsular Culture and Civilization more interactive, relevant, and interesting, an electronic-mail exchange was established between university students in the U. S. and Spain. This article describes the steps involved in setting up such a project, the student tasks assigned, and an evaluation.

Key Words: electronic mail, computers, Spanish, Peninsular culture and civilization, Spain, communicative

competence, penpals, second language pedagogy, motivation M ost language departments re- students in direct, interactive contact with quire Spanish majors and mi- people hiving in the culture they are study- nors to take at least one course ing, I will discuss four areas in this article: in the culture and civilization of Spain or (a) a definition of electronic mail, (b) the Latin America, so that students will acquire steps involved in establishing the exchange, basic knowledge about the geography, his- (c) student assignments, and (d) project tory, art, and politics of people hiving in evaluation. Spanish-speaking countries. Recognizing the importance of this course, teachers of- Definition of Electronic Mail ten try to enliven it by supplementing civilization textbooks with materials from the Electronic mail is a method of commu- various media (like newspapers, videos, nicating via computer networks to relay slides, and music) and with visits by native messages. Compared to other means of speakers. If we could in some way "trans- communication like letters, phone, or fac- port" students to a country hike Spain and simile transmissions (fax), e-mall is the only immerse them in its culture, however, their medium capable of producing messages learning experiences would be much more that are fast, inexpensive, and also versatile vividly remembered and their motivation (Lunde 68). Computer mail messages sent would increase. Consider, for example, the in one part of the world usually take from difference in motivation between students several minutes to a few hours to arrive in who have studied in Spain and those who another part. The cost of electronic mail have never been there. varies, depending on whether the individual

In an attempt to replicate that travel ex- is affiliated with a university or organization perience and take advantage of its benefits that offers these services or whether the without physically traversing the Atiantic, individual must subscribe independentiy. I set up an electronic-mail exchange be- For students and faculty at thousands of tween the 27 students in my Peninsular universities, however, there is usually no fee Culture and Civilization class (Spanish 303) involved in sending messages. Another and university students in Spain. The pri- major advantage of e-mail is its versatility. mary goals for this exchange were to Becauseehectronicmaiharrivesviacomputer, "meet" people in Spain, develop personal it is easy to manipulate the messages by say- relationships, and learn more about the ing, filing, or printing them, by revising their country through the eyes of Spaniards content, or by resending them with addenda. themselves. To clarify how teachers who are interested in enlivening their course can Steps Involved in Establishing the supplement it with a new medium that puts Exchange



PEDAGOGY: COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES 289

1.University support. Preliminary to change with U. S. university students study- planning, teachers need to consider several ing Spanish Culture and Civilization. I re- questions: (a) Does the university have net- ceived 17 responses from students in Spain work access (to Bitnet, Internet, or some and several from Spaniards studying in the similar system)? (b) Will the university give United States. Responding individually to students personal accounts so they can use each student, I gave more information these networks? (c) Are there enough mi- about the project, such as the kinds of e- crocomputers available on campus with mail assignments the students would have network connections (e.g., modems, data and the basic time line for the project. In paths, or other devices that permit phone- addition to the "Spaniards-wanted ads," I line or network transmission)? The com- also recruited students on an individual puter service department of most universi- basis. After reading several of the ex- ties can quickly answer these questions as changes on NETNEWS or Espaiia-L, I well as provide additional support. If the wrote directiy to certain contributors using answers are "yes," the project can begin, the account numbers listed on their mes- 2. Finding "penpals." This was perhaps sages. I not only found fifteen more this

the most difficult and time- consuming part way, but also found a computer science in- of my project. Two months before the actual structor in Madrid who volunteered to put exchange, I began a query of various Spain- a message out to his 70 students. Through

related computer bulletin boards in order his help, 22 more students were found. to find Spaniards who also had electronic By two weeks into the project, we had 54 mail access. At first, I put out a general Spaniards, making it almost impossible for "want ad" on NETNEWS, our USENET, me to communicate with them individually. which is a distribution bulletin board and In order to facilitate sending a single mes- discussion system that is international in sage to all Spanish students, I established scope. It consists of discussion on almost a Nicknames File (i.e., I put all of their ad- 1,000 topics, organized hierarchically into count numbers or e-mail addresses under newsgroups. Although I only posted the one group name). Group messages were NETNEWS announcement on a newsgroup sent out at the beginning of the project in called SOC.CULTURE.SPAIN, there are order to give them more specific informa- two other groups whose contributors write tion and also at the end of the project to primarily in Spanish and whose concerns thank them for their participation and solicit

are Spanish oriented: /SOC.CULTURE. future cooperation.

MEXICAN and /SOC.CULTURE.LATIN- Although I only had 27 students, it was AMERICA. The HELP menu provided by necessary to find more than 27 Spaniards. the various bulletin boards gives informa- Not only did most of the students want tion on how to post general announcements more than one correspondent, but many for readers of the sub-group. I also posted needed more than one "penpal" to fuffill the the article on Espafia-L, a Bitnet-affiliated assignments. Unlike my students who were LISTSERV group.' In addition to helping motivated by a grade to correspond, the with the previously mentioned bulletin Spaniards had no incentive other than an boards, the computer service department exchange of friendship and information. of most universities can also help find out Thus, some corresponded mudh more fre- the node names for universities in Spain quently than others. with access to Bitnet or Internet. Once 3. Initial training. Although computer lit- these "addresses" are known, informational eracy was not a goal of this class, it became inquiries can then be sent to the postmas- essential to the project. When the class ter at that node name.2 started in January, not one of the students

The general announcements I wrote had ever had a user-ID (an account num- were brief and asked only for Spaniards in- ber) and only a few even knew how to log- terested in a semester-long, e-mail ex- on to the mainframe. These problems had



290 HISPANIA 77 MAY 1994

been anticipated, however, and Computer For the final two papers, students could Services here at Central Michigan Univer- choose a subject in which they were inter- sity offered to help in the training. Three ested. The topics for these varied from sessions were scheduled: a general one Spanish food and music to American stereo- explaining how to log-on, send and receive types, the Common Market, and the role of mail, and access NETNEWS; and two fob- women in Spain. how-up sessions for hands-on experimenta- In addition to the five information-reaction. Students were given a handout which tion reports, students had an end-of-the-se- summarized the steps presented in the gen- mester assignment: compile a notebook eral session. (Most computer service de- containing printouts of the messages they partments have these handouts already pre- had sent to solicit the information and the pared.) So that individual problems could replies they had received. The notebook be more readily addressed, the class was assignment not only helped me verify that divided into two groups for the hands-on students had done their own work and that sessions. the messages were written in Spanish, but Electronic-mail concerns were also ad- also gave me insights into the types of com- dressed via a LISTSERV discussion group munication that had occurred. In the note- established just for this class. Many univer- book, each student had to include a list of sities permit classes to set up their own new vocabulary learned through the ex- LISTSERV groups in order to disseminate changes and a personal evaluation of the class information and encourage joint project. If students wanted to, they could projects. As with all LISTSERVs, any mes- include any other non-required messages sage that is posted is sent to each member that had been exchanged. About ninety per- of the group (in this case, to the entire cent of the students did so. The rest in- class). Likewise, any member can respond cluded only the e-mail headers showing to messages or initiate their own. when messages were transmitted, to whom

they were sent, and from whom they were Student Assignments received, so that I would have an idea of the

number of non-assigned exchanges that Based on recommendations by others took place. The average student sent a to-

who have worked with penpal projects in tal of 16 messages and received 12. Al- educational settings (Cohen and Miyake though fewer messages were received from 268; Levin and Riel), I decided to give the the Spaniards, many of their responses students several specific assignments and were longer. Typically, an answer about then evaluate what they produced. Because politics or education would run over 300 the overall goal, however, was to encourage words. personal friendships as well as to obtain Students were also responsible for class cultural information, I limited the number discussions based on their findings. They of assignments to five. After I gave students found it interesting that all the Spaniards topics or questions to ask their Spanish did not give the same answers to the same peers, I asked the students to type a page- question. They provided varied interpreta- length paper summarizing their findings tions to what the text treated as an histori- and reactions. The first three topics were cal event or a common perception (such as the same for everyone and dealt with local Gibraltar, regionalism, or U. S. bases in customs and holiday celebrations, educa- Spain). tion, and politics. Students were also given specific terms and abbreviations to identify, Project Evaluation such as E.G B. (Educaci6n General Btsica), E.T.A. (Eu skadi Ta Askatasuna), and The electronic-mail project actually had P.S.O.E. (Partido Social Obrero Espailol), four components. Two involved on-campus as well as others, depending on the topic. communication: (a) communicating di-




rectly with the professor or with another and the participation in classroom discus- student and (b) reading and responding to sions) was the only one evaluated. Coin- class messages on the class LISTSERV. The bined, the electronic mail activities ac- other two were related to off-campus or in- counted for twenty percent of each ternational communication: (c) accessing student's final grade. Even though there the NETNEWS and Spanish LISTSERV were some problems involved, exchanging bulletin boards, and (d) exdhanging mes- e-mail messages had many benefits and in- sages with the Spaniards and engaging in creased the students' motivation to commu- the follow-up discussions in class. Although nicate further. By using electronic mail, stu- each component served a different func- dents increased their knowledge of Spanish tion, the first three helped to support the culture and history, the Spanish language, fourth, which was the most important. and computers. Many students communicated with me The cultural information these students directly, when they needed help with some received seemed to be more authentic and point made in class, an assignment, or a better understood than information gained problem with e-mail. This student commu- through conventional instruction. Not only nication gave me a way of responding to was this evident in our classroom discus- them individually and fostered a better rap- sions; many student also attested to it in port between us, since, via the network, I their evaluations. Perhaps for this reason, seemed to be always available, they became more interested in what was The class LISTSERV facilitated such stu- happening not only in Spain, but in the rest dent-teacher communication. Using it, I of the world-including the United States. could send a message that would be re- Several Spaniards asked the American stu- ceived by the entire class every time I dents about religious cults, their health-care wanted to post notices about special Spain- system, the fanfare of political elections, and related artistic events in our area, let stu- so forth. Because of the topics involved in dents know about television programs, or the e-mail exchange, the students had good conduct review sessions. Before the final opportunities to think more theoretically exam, I prepared an electronic "review and perhaps more critically about world is- sheet." Using it, students could add details sues. or share information with others in the In this project, students increased their class. knowledge of the language by writing mes-

NETNEWS and Spanish LISTSERV bul- sages, reading replies, and being exposed letin boards were another source of authen- to different types of written discourse. Elec- tic information for the students. Unlike the tronic mail has been previously used in the e-mail exchange, most of these messages foreign language classroom to promote are written by Spaniards to other Spaniards. both reading (Beazley) and writing (Cohen Thus, some of the vocabulary and idiomatic and Miyake, Fl6rez-Estrada, Tihlyer and expressions were difficult for third-level stu- Robb). It provides a natural way of promot- dents. ing communicative competence, that is, of

At times the topics were not of interest giving students meaningful, realistic rea- to all students (such as the 30 or so mes- sons to use language and of exposing them sages concerning the best beer). There to authentic models of written discourse. In were, however, interesting and heated dis- this project, my primary purpose was to in- cussions on regionalism, with contributors crease knowledge in a content area (Spain from all parts of Spain. Many of these ex- and the Spaniards). The students' commu- changes gave the class topics to discuss nicative competence improved as a natural with their Spaniards. by-product of that pursuit.

The fourth and primary component, the Since students in the United States usu- actual e-mail exchange (i.e., the informa- ally do not have much contact with cobb- tion-reaction papers, the e-mail notebook, quial phrases used by their Spanish-speak-




ing peers, a common complaint of those motivation increased. Although some stu- who study abroad is that they initially have dents considered computer skills beyond trouble understanding the language spoken the realm of a Spanish course and were re- in the homes and on the streets. In an in- luctant to learn them, by the end of the se- teresting way, this e-mail project did help mester the class understood how the com- replicate that valuable learning experience puter could help them access a wide vari- for the students. Although many of the ety of information. Most students also Spaniards who participated in this project viewed the e-mall exchange as an additional wrote in a more formal style when respond- opportunity to use Spanish and to practice ing directiy to questions, most of the private outside of class, if they so desired. The exchanges were written informally, as if majority took advantage of the opportunity, they were talking to a friend in the same either because they found the computer to room. The electronic medium itself and the be an interesting medium, because they immediacy of the computer transmissions found a new friend with whom to corre- probably both contributed to this style. spond, or both. Due to the open-ended na- Thus, students in the United States who ture of the activities, most students found participated in this project learned about they were directing their own learning and the Spanish used in daily conversation. Al- were finding out about issues in which they though there were no pre-tests or post-tests were interested. of language skills, many of the students in- Approximately a fifth of the students dicated in their evaluations that they felt finished the semester having acquired a better able to comprehend and write Span- new "friend." In addition to writing fre- ish as a result of participating in the e-mail quently, some exchanged letters, photo- project. graphs, magazines, music tapes, and per-

In the past, culture and literature classes sonal presents. Two have even made plans have tended to de-emphasized communica- to visit each other. In the end-of-the-course tive competence in an attempt to devote evaluations, most students cited this expe- more time to course content. Recent stud- rience as the most meaningful part of the ies have shown, however, that these stu- class. It appeared to be worthwhile for most dents do not feel that enough emphasis is of the Spaniards as well. After sending the placed on speaking and that they are not last group message to the Spanish partici- "learning the language" as they thought pants, twelve wrote back stating how much they would (Martin and Laurie). In fact, a they had enjoyed the project and asking to study with students at Middlebury College be included in exchange in the following corroborates those sentiments. Liskin- semester. Gasparro found that students who tested at Although there were many benefits to the intermediate level on the Oral Profi- this project, it was not without problems. At ciency Interview in September had not first it was difficult to find enough inter- moved to the advanced level by May, even ested Spaniards, and several who initially though all of them took a course each se- agreed to be part of the project dropped out mester. Consequently, for our content along the way. Assignment deadlines soon courses, we need to offer students more emerged as another problem. Because communicative experiences. Electronic some Spaniards did not answer the ques- mail appears to be especially suited for help- tions, were on vacation, or did not reply with ing students develop their communicative enough detail, some of the students found competence as well as improving their it impossible to turn in a page-long paper on knowledge of Spanish culture and the Span- a specified date, and I had to extend the ish language. deadlines.

Besides learning more about culture and There were also minor, individual prob- language, the students became more famil- hems that annoyed and frustrated several iar with the use of computers, and their students on this side of the Atlantic: host




mail, an inability to access mail, systems INFORM-L@VMTECSLP ("Cultura Informitica disruptions, and difficulty in finding an en Mexico y America Latina") available computer at a specific time. In CENTRAM-L@UBVM ("Central American Dis-

cussion List")

addition to computer problems, a few stu- LITERA-h@TECMTYVM ("Literature in English dents encountered linguistic difficulties. and Spanish") They were concerned about being misun- [email protected] (Latin America

derstood or being perceived negatively due studies. Address subscription requests to: LASNET-

to their faulty Spanish. If students were REQUEST) 2BITNET nodes in Spain include the following: overly concerned about this, I encouraged Node ID Site Name them to have another student check their EALIUNli Universidad de Ahicante CPD message or to ask me how to phrase some- EBCCUAB1 Universitat Aut6noma de Barcelona, thing before transmitting it. Most, however, Centre de Calcul. found that the Spaniards would help them EBCESCA1 Centre Supercomputacio Catahunya

EBESADEO ESADE Esc. Sup. de Direcci6n yAdmi-

with the language by questioning what they nistraci6n de Empresas did not understand, and at times, even send- EBRIECOl Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Barcelona, ing back the original message with correc- Spain tions made in capital letters. The majority EBUBECM1 Estr. Materia-Fisicas-Universidad de Barcelona were not intimidated by their Spanish peers EBUBLCFQ Facultat Quimiques Universitat Barce- and, in fact, found themselves taking many hona, Spain more risks with the language than they EBOUAB51 Univ. Aut6noma de Barcelona - Lab. would have taken in the classroom. Altes Energies Centro de Informitica - Universidad de * espite such problems, the students' EBOUBO12 Barcelona reactions were overwhelmingly ELEULEll Universidad de Le6n, Spain

positive. In general, their com- EMDCCI11 IBM Scient. Center, Instituto de Inge-

ments could simply be summarized as fob- nieria del Conocimiento lows: computers are NOT impersonal. For EMDUAM11 Universidad Aut6noma Madrid, Spain the 27 participants, computers increased EMDUAM12 Universidad Aut6noma Madrid, Spain students across the Atlantic, to EMDUAMS2 Universidad Aut6noma Madrid, Spain access to EMDUAMS3 UniversidadAut6moma Madrid, Spain students within their class, and to their in- EMDUPM1I Universidad Pohitdcnica Madrid, Spain structor. This electronic mail project added EMDUPM12 Universidad Pohitdcnica Madrid, Spain a whole new dimension to the teaching- EOVUOV11 Universidad de Oviedo - Centro de Pro- learning interaction, enlivened the course, EVALQF ceso de Datos and increased student motivation. It also- Departamento de Quimica Fisica, Uni-

versidad de Valencia

by allowing them to make authentic cultural EVALSB Servei de Bioinformitica; Universitat and linguistic connections without actually de Valencia

having to travel abroad-greatiy expanded EVALUNli Centro de Informitica- Universidad de

the range of the content and skills that are Valencia

EVALUN63 Centro de Informitica- Universidad de

normally explored in a required civilization Valencia

course. EVALVX Instituto de Fisica Corpuscular, Univ.

Vahencia - CSIC * NOTES (For example, to reach the Postmaster at the Uni-

versity of Ahicante write: Postmaster@EALIUN11)

1Besides ESPANA-L@ALBNVMI, other electronic lists, such as the following (Bedell), relate to Spanish- U WORKS CITED

speaking interest groups:

ESPORA-L@UKANVA ("History of the Iberian Beazley, Malcolm R. "Reading for Real Reasons: Coin- Peninsula") puter Pals Across the World."Journalofkeading

BORIKEN@ENIACE ("Cultura y Sociedad de 32 (1989): 598-605.

Puerto Rico") Bedell, David. "Review of Electronic Lists for Lan- SDOMINGO@ENLACE ("SDOMINGO: Culturay guage Learning." Athelstan 5 (August 1993): 13-

sociedad de ha Repdbhica Dominicana") 15.

MExICO-L@TECMTYVM ("Knowing Mexico: Cohen, Moshe and Naomi Miyake. "A Worldwide In- people, places, culture") tercultural Network: Exploring Electronic Mes-




saging for Instruction." Instructional Science 15 Lunde, Ken R. "Using Electronic Mail as a Medium (1986): 257-73. for Foreign Language Study and Instruction."

Fl6rez-Estrada, Nancy. 'Writing with a Purpose." Pa- CALICO Journal (March 1990): 68-78. per, ACTFL Convention, Chicago, November Martin, Anne Land Ian Laurie. "Student Views About 1992. the Contribution of Literary and Cultural Content

Levin, J. A., and M. M. Riel. "Educational Electronic to Language Learning at the Intermediate Level." Networks: How They Work (and Don't Work) ." Foreign LanguageAnnals 26 (1993): 188-207. Paper, The Annual Meeting of the American Edu- Tillyer, Anthea and Thomas Robb. "Electronically cational Research Association, 1985. Yours: Cross-cultural Communication Through E-

Liskin-Gasparro, Judith. "Future Shock in Language Mail Penpals." Paper, TESOLAnnual Convention, Education: Responding to Global and Technologi- Atlanta, April 1993. cab Imperatives." Paper, ACTFL Convention, Chi- cago, November 1992.



Documents

Making Authentic Cultural and Linguistic Connections