Business Spanish Lesson Plan, Week 4

by Ann Abbott

Week 4

Día 1: España y Guinea Ecuatorial

I asked students to raise their hands if they had ever learned about Equatorial Guinea in any of their previous Spanish classes. No one raised their hand, as I had suspected. So we spent the entire class learning about Guinea Ecuatorial together.

La geografía

As a starting point, we tested our knowledge of countries and geography. Half of the class tested their knowledge of European countries with this interactive map, and the other half did the same with African countries. I gave them a few minutes to work on the map quiz then put them in breakout rooms of three people. There, they talked about what they knew, didn´t know, what they learned, and what they learned from each other (those who had worked on the other map). We came back together, they shared with all of us, and it was clear that most students have a lot to learn about geography, a common weakness in our educational system.

El idioma y la cultura

It was important to let them know about the country's dicatorship. But I wanted them to know more than that, to know about the people, too. I went through some of the data about Guinea Ecuatorial from Éxito comercial´s ebook. We especially noted the languages, food and customs. I put them into pairs in breakout rooms to discuss the ¨platos raros¨ o ¨ingredientes raros¨ that they have experienced. We followed up, and I shared with them about eating horse meat and sesos de oveja in Italy. But of course I didn't want us to exoticize Guinea Ecuatorial, so together we looked at and read about this drink that is mentioned in the book. It sounds delicious. And I asked them to look up the other alcoholic drink mentioned in the textbook and share their reactions to it. 

Hablan los guineoecuatorianos

Next we listened to two YouTubers from Guinea Ecuatorial talk about the food from their country. Not only did students get to listen to typical YouTuber talk in Spanish, but they also learned so much more cultural information than just about the food. In breakout rooms, students discussed what they had learned and their reactions.

Conclusiones

Finally, I asked students to search this hashtag in their favorite social media sites: #GuineaEcuatorial https://. After a few minutes of exploring, I then asked everyone to write something in the chat about what they had learned about the country out through this search. It was great to see a wide variety of things that they gleaned.

I'm glad that we spent a lot of time talking about just one country because I hope that they learned about this former Spanish colony in Africa and that they learned something more nuanced about "Africa" than they knew before today.