The Open University
- Start Date: 19 Sep, 2022
- 4 weeks
- Study Content: Videos
Discover the rich cultural heritage of the Spanish-speaking worlds with a focus on popular cultural expressions.
Course Fee: Free
Certificate Cost: See Fees and Eligibility
Course Description
This course is made available through the eLearnAfrica and FutureLearn partnership.
Uncover what gives Spanish-speaking communities their cultural identity
On this course you’ll develop your knowledge of popular cultural expressions in Spanish-speaking worlds, from traditions and customs, to popular music and TV, learning vital vocabulary and structures along the way.
Learn about cultural heritage, customs, traditions, and celebrations
You’ll discover the importance of tradition and customs in Spanish-speaking worlds within local, national, and international dimensions, including symbols and rituals in well-known festivals.
You’ll also learn about more personal celebrations including birthdays, marriages, and other family occasions. Practical activities will help you talk and write about these using the past tense.
Putting your new skills into action, you’ll practice giving short written or oral presentations on cultural subject matters such as celebrations. This will help you develop listening strategies to engage in authentic conversations.
Explore Latin music and rhythms
You’ll gain new skills to talk about music, including naming instruments, types of music, and places where it can be heard. You’ll broaden your knowledge of Latin music, unravelling its roots and socio-political links.
You’ll investigate how influences from native America, Africa, and Europe have evolved to create distinctive Latin rhythms, such as tango, merengue, salsa, bachata, or flamenco.
Discover popular TV shows in Latin American countries and Spain
You’ll examine some well-known television programmes including comedies, telenovelas (serial dramas) and TV series in Latin American countries and Spain, and use your new language skills to reflect on the impact of these on modern Spanish-speaking societies.
You’ll end this course with an exciting opportunity to apply your new language skills in the creation and narration of your own short story.
This course is designed for those who are at Level A2, working towards Level B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Learners should feel confident to use the language in most situations likely to arise while travelling in the worlds of Spanish.
The OU’s language ExpertTracks are designed to help you progress with each one you study. It’s suggested you work through them in order to effectively develop your language skills.
Learners would benefit from having completed Intermediate Spanish: People and Places before taking this ExpertTrack.
Certificate cost may vary. You will be redirected to the host page for cost and payment options.
The Open University
The Open University (OU) is the largest academic institution in the UK and a world leader in flexible distance learning.
Since it began in 1969, the OU has taught more than 1.8 million students and has almost 220,000 current students, including more than 15,000 overseas. The Open University is rated one of the best in the UK for student satisfaction in the National Student Survey. The OU is one of only four UK universities to have consistently achieved more than 90% in the survey’s history. Over 70% of students are in full-time or part-time employment, and four out of five FTSE 100 companies have sponsored staff to take OU courses.
The UK’s latest Research Excellence Framework exercise (REF 2014) places The Open University in the top third of UK higher education institutions by ‘research power’ ranking. 72% of OU research submitted was assessed as world-leading or internationally excellent.
Regarded as Britain’s major e-learning institution, the OU is a world leader in developing technology to increase access to education on a global scale. Its vast ‘open content portfolio’ includes free study units on OpenLearn, which has had more than 26.7 million visits, and materials on iTunes U, which has recorded more than 60 million downloads. The OU has a 41 year partnership with the BBC which has moved from late-night lectures in the 1970s to prime-time programmes such as Frozen Planet, Bang Goes the Theory, James May’s Big Ideas and The Money Programme.
All Open University Science courses presented on FutureLearn are produced with the kind support of Dangoor Education.
This institution is available on eLearnAfrica through partnership with FutureLearn.
COLLABORATION POLICY
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Complete all tests and assignments on my own, unless collaboration on an assignment is explicitly permitted.
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VIOLATIONS
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Receiving a zero or no credit for an assignment;
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Having any certificate earned in the course withheld or revoked;
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Being unenrolled from a course, learning program or degree program; or
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Termination of your use of the App and/or Site.
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CHANGING THE HONOR CODE
Please note that we review and may make changes to this Honor Code from time to time. Any changes to this Honor Code will be effective immediately upon posting on this page, with an updated effective date. By accessing the App and/or Site after any changes have been made, you signify your agreement on a prospective basis to the modified Honor Code and any changes contained therein. Be sure to return to this page periodically to ensure familiarity with the most current version of this Honor Code.
Effective Date: September 22, 2016