Abstract

BALESTRA, Alejandra  and  GASCA JIMENEZ, Laura. Critical thinking, cultural awareness and technology: activities for Spanish as a Second Language courses. Comunicación [online]. 2017, vol.26, n.2, pp.49-62. ISSN 1659-3820.  http://dx.doi.org/10.18845/rc.v26i2-17.3444.

Critical thinking, cultural awareness and technology: activities for Spanish as a Second

Language courses

The objective of this article is to describe the design of appropriate materials for the construction of sociocultural and critical knowledge in two Spanish L2 courses in an American urban university. This paper is the result of research regarding the design and development of appropriate materials for students of a second language carried out in recent years in the Department of Hispanic Studies in the University of Houston. The materials were designed and developed according to the theoretical assumptions of critical pedagogy, the development of critical thinking, and critical social awareness. They were implemented through a series of digital tools that allowed all the courses, face-to-face oron-line, benefit from these materials. Some examples of students’ answers of the selected courses were qualitatively analyzed. The analysis of the data shows that students were able to express their points of view in a critical way, make comparisons between their own culture and experiences and those of the target language, carry out research, and develop their own conclusions aided by the didactic materials developed.

Keywords : education; critical pedagogic; criticalthinking; second language learning; teachinga second language; online education.

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