Participation in an International Professional Program on Contemporary Manifestations of Popular Culture and its Incorporation in the Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL) Classroom

Grant:

Lecturers' Professional Development Fund (LPDF)

Academic Year:

2016 - 2017 (June 1, 2016 through May 31, 2017)

Funding Requested:

$2,000.00

Project Dates:

Mon, 07/17/2017 - Fri, 07/28/2017

Applicant(s):

vgarre

Overview of the Project:

I am applying for this LPDF grant in order to participate in an international professional program on contemporary manifestations of popular culture and its incorporation in the Spanish as a foreign language (FL) classroom, taking place during two weeks in July 2017 in an accredited institution in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia, Spain). The program includes 40 contact hours and extra out-of-classroom activities. With this professional development activity, I will gain skills on how to enhance students’ Communicative Competence while teaching Spanish popular culture to my undergraduate students at the University of Michigan, and it will also provide me with a broad repertoire of materials and ideas for the Spanish courses I teach in the Elementary Language Program (ELP) at the department of Romance Languages and Literatures. As a language Lecturer, the LPDF grant will allow me to acquire new perspectives and notions on the implementation of different forms of popular culture in order to foster students’ interest and motivation in the FL classroom. Likewise, receiving this grant will make an impact in at least 108 undergraduate students annually who choose Spanish in order to complete the language requirement from LSA, which includes the different courses in the ELP from 101 to 232.

Final Report Fields

Project Objectives:

The main objective was to expand my academic training through a continuous learning experience while obtaining information with regard to manifestations of popular culture within the fields of music, art, cinema, literature, comics, advertisement, short films and the press with a direct pedagogical application to the Spanish FL classroom. With this course, I could also learn how to design activities from a popular culture perspective while offering pedagogical techniques to implement ICTs in the classroom in order to foster the students’ autonomy and reflection when learning Spanish.

Project Achievements:

Participating in this series of workshops offered me new perspectives on teaching Spanish popular culture to my undergraduate students at the University of Michigan. As a language Lecturer, the LPDF grant allowed allow me to acquire new perspectives and ideas on the implementation of different forms of popular culture in order to foster students’ interest and motivation in the Spanish courses I teach within the Elementary Language Program (ELP) at the department of Romance Languages and Literatures. As mentioned on the proposal, the achievements from this project will make an impact in at least 108 undergraduate students annually who choose Spanish in order to complete the language requirement from LSA, which includes the different courses in the ELP from 101 to 232.

Continuation:

The project is not continuing beyond the grant period, but I have kept developing new, authentic materials for my Spanish classes based the workshops I attended.

Dissemination:

I have already been in touch with colleages in my department in order to discuss ways to implement activities from a cultural perspective in Spanish FL classes, and I also plan to participate in the Share Fair and Brown Bag Discussions that take place every semester in RLL.

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