Rationale
Studying a foreign language does not only consist of knowing the grammar or the vocabulary. Although one of the ultimate goals for my students is to be capable of communication in the target language, I consider cultural understanding to be crucial. Students should not only be able to speak the language but they should also acquire a deep understanding of the history, literature, art, music and so on, of the Spanish speaking countries. By doing so, they will also start thinking about global consciousness and the importance of embracing global understanding.
Film is an ideal tool to use in the classroom in order to explore culture in context and to do so in a meaningful way. Through film I will be able to address a two-fold goal: explore at various levels, the different cultural aspects portrayed in the movies (and therefore improve students' critical thinking skills) and develop students' proficiency in two of the four language skills, listening and speaking. I am also hoping my students will learn to "read movies." They are used to watching popular blockbusters that do not necessarily make them think. At the end of this curriculum unit students will be able to discern the difference between a shot and a scene, a flashback and a flashforward, voice-over and voice-off, mise-en-scène and editing, etc.
In addition, this unit will help me to implement the five-goal areas the National Standards of Foreign Language Learning called the Five C's of Foreign Language Education: communication, cultures, connections (among disciplines), comparisons (between cultures) and communities. My students will understand and interpret spoken and written language; they will demonstrate an understanding of the traditions, products (texts and films) and perspectives of the Spanish cultures; they will reinforce and expand their knowledge of other areas of study (literature and film studies) through Spanish, and finally, they will be able to compare the textual sources and their adaptations to film.
The unit is to be used in my Spanish I courses at Hill Regional Career High School. Career is a magnet school in New Haven, for students interested in health sciences, business, and technology. Even though the unit is to be taught to students with what the American Council of the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) calls the "novice level" (1), it could be used on upper level courses with proper modifications. Students at this level demonstrate some accuracy in oral and written presentations when reproducing memorized words, phrases and sentences in the target language; formulate oral and written presentations using a limited range of simple phrases and expressions based on very familiar topics; show inaccuracies and/or interference from the native language when attempting to communicate information which goes beyond the memorized or pre-fabricated.
Due to the basic level my students have, I will try to use Spanish as much as I can, but it will be necessary to operate and read some of the works in either bilingual editions and/or English. As for the movies, all or most of them will be viewed in Spanish with English subtitles. I consider it crucial for my students to listen to Spanish as much as possible.
The present unit is the result of a film seminar on adaptation led by Professor Dudley Andrew. Choosing the literary pieces has not been easy since there are many major masterworks in the history of the Spanish and Latin American literatures. I have chosen three different pieces: the first one will be Prosper Mérimé's novella Carmen, the second one will be Federico García Lorca's play Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding) and El amor en los tiempos del cólera (Love in the Time of Cholera), one of Gabriel García Márquez' magnum opuses will be our last text. What makes these three works so special is that the three of them are exceptional works of art. These provide good literature that helps me keeping the high standards I try to maintain for my students. By using this material, the many cultural elements present in these works are transferable to any other culture in time and meaning.
Carmen, as well as Bodas de Sangre and El amor en los tiempos del cólera, could easily have become low-brow products because the melodramatic nature of the stories. Instead, all three literary works have been transformed into high-quality versions in other media.
I have chosen these three prominent works of art because they represent real value as well as a wide range of social, cultural and historical contexts; because they are all deeply related to the traditional culture of Spain and Colombia, and because I was able to find material that would be appropriate to my students' level. I expect my students will learn from these literary masterpieces and they will remember some of it.
I will teach the unit throughout the year. Starting in December, we will use Carmen first. The novella takes place in Andalusia and there are certain elements that I will like my students to become familiar with while reading the text in English: I will also encourage them to pay attention to the structure of the novella, as well as to identify cultural elements that they recognize as unfamiliar. I want to start with this literary piece because it introduces some of the elements that we will explore in depth when we get to Lorca's Bodas de Sangre.
The students will become familiar with some of the Andalusian traditions and cultural manifestations, as well as some of the not always true stereotypes. In order to do so, I want my students to reflect on what these stereotypes are and how they can be broken. Along with the themes and meanings of the novella, I will introduce the notion of adapting literary products into different media. We will compare different film versions. I will then introduce a couple of artistic forms students will not know too much about: opera and flamenco. The story of Carmen is universally recognized due to Bizet's opera. We will mainly work with Carlos Saura's version, which is based on both the opera and the novella and which incorporates flamenco.
Working with Carmen will give me the opportunity to develop a mini workshop on flamenco. We will learn basic rhythms, the different "acompañamientos" (cante, baile and guitarra), and some of the most important "palos." (2)
The second adaptation will be Bodas de Sangre, one of Lorca's masterpieces and a work that fits perfectly with my purposes for the unit. First of all, we will be able to connect it with what we had learned before about stereotypes, and about certain Andalusian traditions and cultural aspects. I also chose this brilliant literary piece because it will allow me to introduce Federico García Lorca and his work to my students. This part of the unit will be taught in the last couple of weeks of March, when students feel a little bit more comfortable with the language and they will have reached a higher level of understanding when reading an"authentic" (3) literary work. We will be using a bilingual copy of the drama.
Because of the large Latino population in New Haven, and because of the relevance of many authors in almost every country, I would be foolish not to include a Hispanic American work in a unit about adapting literary Spanish works. Since García Márquez is one of the world's greatest writers, I have the urge to teach El amor en los tiempos del cólera to my students. As the unit will be taught in a lower level course, I will be using a bilingual version of the text (or both the Spanish version and a good translation). This third and final part of the unit will be presented in early May, when students will be able to work more independently and have a better understanding of the relationship between film and literature.
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