Journal Review of "Teaching Language Skills and Cultural Awareness with Spanish Paintings" by Marian Mikaylo Ortuño - Hispania

1. Teaching Language Skills and Cultural
Awareness with Spanish Paintings
Marian Mikaylo Ortuño
Hispania, Vol. 77, No. 3 (Sep., 1994), pp. 500-511
American Association of Teachers of Spanish and
Portuguese

2. • Advantages of using reproductions of Spanish
paintings from the sixteenth to twentieth
centuries in the promotion of language learning
and cultural awareness
• Suggestions on how to incorporate some
paintings into the curriculum at various levels

3. “How does the instructor create the optimal
learning environment in which to develop the
four skills - comprehension, speaking, reading,
and writing- along with an awareness of cross-
cultural similarities and differences?”

4. • Visually engaging authentic materials have been
shown by some studies as facilitators of
language acquisition and the formation of
cultural attitudes

5. Incorporation of art works into the curriculum in
one of the following ways:
• As a cultural supplement at any level of
instruction,
• in a cross-disciplinary course, or
• to prepare students for study abroad.

6. Learning in Context
• Spanish paintings can encourage students to
engage in creative discourse.
• Visual sensory stimuli embedded with cultural
connections have the power to convey
emotions.
• They attract the student’s attention and can
cause an affective reaction (shock, surprise,
disapproval, or even laughter).

7. Learning in Context
• Even the most inhibited students are able to
risk grammar mistakes to comment on colorful
visual symbols

8. Learning in Context
Magdalena Penitente - El
Greco

9. Learning in Context
• “¿Qué ve usted?”, “Diga algo sobre esta
pintura.”
• Offer clues about the identity of the person
depicted on the painting
• When, where, and why
• Background information on the painter and
theme

10. Learning in Context
• Colors, clothing, parts of the body
• Agreement in number and gender
• Different tenses. Students can ask one
another:
– ¿Qué está haciendo María Magdalena?
– ¿Qué hizo con el perfume?
– ¿En qué estará pensando?

11. Learning in Context
Compare and Contrast
• List of similarities & contrasts
• Analytical thinking skills
La Reina Mariana
de Austria -
Velásquez

12. Learning in Context
• Using paintings can help incorporate culture in the
language learning experience and make it both
enjoyable and intellectually profitable
• Standards for Foreign Language Learning –
CONNECTION:
– Paintings are well suited to the teaching of history,
literature, and art itself along with language and culture
– Provide students with a global context, on which the
society and institutions of a culture are reflected as they
respond to social, religious, and political forces

13. Transition from Language to
Literature
• Students can feel at a loss during the period of
transition because they lack:
– Historical background,
– Confidence,
– Language skills,
– Interest in literature