Intermediate Spanish: Culture and Leisure
Explore popular culture and leisure activities in Spanish-speaking worlds, including literature, film, heritage, media, and sport.
Duration
Approx 12 weeks4 hrs per week
Intermediate Spanish: Culture and Leisure
Take your Spanish language skills to the next level with The Open University
Culture and leisure are a key part of life in Spanish-speaking worlds. Music, sport, art, traditions, celebrations, and the media all play a central role in the construction of their identities and even political struggles.
This ExpertTrack will focus on linguistic elements of the Spanish language through the lens of key contemporary cultural aspects in Spanish-speaking countries.
The courses have been designed to enable you to develop skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking, as well as perfecting your grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Throughout your learning, you will have plenty of opportunities to practise your skills with activities to help bring your learning to life.
Discover popular entertainment and leisure activities in Spanish-speaking worlds
You’ll start by developing your language skills to discover the mass media, popular sports, and leisure activities in various settings within Spanish-speaking contexts.
You’ll have the opportunity to apply your skills by discussing leisure trends, ways to express personal preferences, and recognising and summarising significant points from newspaper articles with your co-learners.
Understand contemporary literature, cinema, and the visual arts in Spanish-speaking worlds
Next, you’ll explore popular contemporary literature genres and the film industry. You’ll discover how to talk about some key literary movements, authors, films, and directors.
While engaging critically in these topics, you’ll learn how to talk about books in Spanish, describe images and paintings, summarise film plots, and discuss your favourite author, book, or film. You’ll also be encouraged to produce a short film synopsis or book review in Spanish.
Reflect on the diversity of popular culture in the worlds of Spanish
The final course of this ExpertTrack explores popular culture, including music, customs, and celebrations.
You’ll look at how social practices, rituals, festivities, and music influence the lives of communities. You’ll expand your language skills to be able to talk about how these reaffirm or challenge identities and create a sense of belonging in countries where Spanish is spoken.
You’ll also build your understanding of how language and migration have influenced music genres, such as tango and flamenco. You’ll develop the vocabulary to describe traditions, customs, and create your own short story of a cultural expression of your choice.
By the end, you’ll have the confidence to use your Spanish language skills to immerse yourself in the leisure and culture of the countries in which it is spoken.
Key skills you will learn
- Spanish language skills
- Speaking and understanding spoken Spanish
- Listening to Spanish
- Writing and understanding written Spanish
- Intercultural understanding and communication
- Planning personal development
- Critical thinking about intercultural issues
Learning outcomes
By the end of the ExpertTrack, you’ll be able to...
- Develop and consolidate lexical, grammatical and oral competence in written and spoken Spanish within a variety of everyday cultural and leisure contexts
- Develop your ability to understand and use a range of spoken and written communication in Spanish within a variety of cultural and leisure contexts
- Demonstrate an understanding of key cultural, entertainment and leisure aspects related to Spanish-speaking societies and an ability to reflect on their cultural expressions
Experience required
The Open University’s language ExpertTracks are designed to help you progress with each one you study.
This ExpertTrack is for those at Level A2 working towards Level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) who feel confident in most situations likely to arise while travelling in Spanish-speaking countries.
To effectively develop your skills, before joining it’s suggested you complete Intermediate Spanish: People and Places.
Getting started
This ExpertTrack is intended for people with a basic knowledge of Spanish who would like to improve their competence in the spoken and written language and deepen their understanding of Spanish-speaking cultures.
The courses are suitable for those:
- looking to advance their career with competence in an additional language
- with a love for Spanish and Latin American cultures
- with an interest in travelling
- interested in understanding and discussing issues affecting the worlds of Spanish
ExpertTrack course overview
Course 1
Intermediate Spanish: Leisure in Spanish-Speaking Countries
Take your Spanish language skills to the next level by exploring the leisure activities enjoyed in Spanish-speaking worlds.
4 tests
4 weeks
4 hours per week
Course 2
Intermediate Spanish: Literature, Cinema and the Visual Arts
Understand the significance of contemporary literature, cinema, and the visual arts in the Spanish-speaking worlds.
4 tests
4 weeks
4 hours per week
Course 3
Intermediate Spanish: Heritage and Popular Culture
Discover the rich cultural heritage of the Spanish-speaking worlds with a focus on popular cultural expressions.
4 tests
4 weeks
4 hours per week
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Join an ExpertTrack to master new skills in your chosen specialist area. Work through a series of topic-focused courses at your own pace, and pass the final assessment to earn a digital certificate award which proves your expertise.
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World-class learning with The Open University
As the UK’s largest university, The Open University (OU) supports thousands of students to achieve their goals and ambitions via supported distance learning, helping to fit learning around professional and personal life commitments.
Established
1969Location
Milton Keynes, UKWorld ranking
Top 510Source: Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020
Meet your instructor
A lecturer in the School of Languages & Applied Linguistics at The Open University with extensive experience in designing and applying online teaching materials. Esther is also a freelance translator.
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