TABOO AND INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING: THE TOPIC OF DEATH IN SPANISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
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In this paper the authors discuss the topic of death in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. The aim of this paper is, in accordance with the current trends in foreign language teaching that focus on students’ intercultural competence, to shed light on the subject of death and the possibilities of including this subject in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. The authors’ initial idea is that the elaboration of the phenomenon of death from the perspective of different cultures can build intercultural dialogue and, consequently, intercultural competence. The hypothesis is that the phenomenon of death – given the fact that it represents a universal phenomenon, but also one of the dominant taboos in western societies – will be poorly represented in textbooks for Spanish as a foreign language, mainly through a festivity called el Día de Muertos and mostly on higher levels of learning due to its complex and specific vocabulary. Firstly, the authors provide a brief description of presence and elaboration of the subject of death in textbooks for Spanish as L2 published by some of the most important publishers in Spain. Afterwards, the model of a didactic unit is given. The results of the corpus research confirm the initial hypothesis that the subject of death is barely represented in didactic material and that it is always represented through a Hispanic festivity called el Día de Muertos, which is characterized by its uncommon understanding of death. The analysis refuted the initial hypothesis that this subject would be represented on higher levels of learning because it was also found on lower levels as well (A1-B1). The didactic unit offered in this paper deals with the subject of death and the mentioned festivity el Día de Muertos through different types of activities for the B1 level with the aim of developing intercultural competence of Spanish students.
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