Vida Hispanica

Vida Hispánica is the journal for teachers of Spanish and Portuguese at all levels and in all sectors. It includes articles on teaching Spanish and Portuguese, on the two languages and on contemporary Iberia and Latin America. Articles are in English or Spanish. There are also reviews of publications about Spain, Portugal and Latin America and of resources for teaching the languages, plus details of forthcoming events. Each issue has a ‘Noticiario’ section bringing readers cultural and political news from the Spanish-speaking countries. As in all the ALL journals, contributions submitted to Vida Hispánica are peer reviewed and published subject to approval by independent referees.

Articles in recent issues have included the following: ‘Integración del componente no verbal en el aula ELE’, ‘Promoting the diversity of Portuguese-speaking countries while teaching Portuguese’, 'Working with Picasso: a Year 10 course unit', 'Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street in the literature class', ‘What inspires students of Spanish to progress to higher levels of learning?', 'Programas y servicios de la Consejería de Educación’. 

An index of the contents of all issues since 2000 will be available shortly.

 

ISSN: 0308-4957
Published: Twice annually, in April and September, normally 32pp
Current issue: No. 45, Spring 2012
Editor: Nuria López
Reviews Editor: Noelia Alcarazo

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In issue 45 Mike Zollo in his Noticiario section wrote about a number of YouTube and other sites where useful materials could be found for teaching Spanish. It was not possible to reproduce all of his links to these sites in the printed journals, and we are therefore making his whole text available here:

 

WWW.TÚTUBO.COM

No, not a new website, just an invented title under which to express my appreciation at being able to find so many clips on YouTube to use in Spanish lessons. In the last few weeks alone I have used it to access clips of seasonal relevance such as:

El Gordo de la Lotería de Navidad 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKW4Vf0KMuI

Nochevieja
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZlP47FrbIM

La cabalgata de los Reyes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtCweNbtFcg&feature=related

Such clips tend to be amateur videos, so of course need selecting carefully and checking out first. Villancicos add to the Christmas spirit towards the end of the autumn erm and invite participation if you can find versions with lyrics:

Campana sobre campana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEbltf1Z-MY

Los peces en el río
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jv19WOJ3NhY

Pastores venid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9Wwq2Y2MsQ

As an end of term Christmas treat, or during the pantomime season, fairy stories offer some surprising linguistic challenges:

Caperucita Roja
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aHsGE6Kdx4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBeBy7PBL60

Blanca Nieves
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvz-0ulrorg&feature=fvst

Pulgarcito
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr0rF485_es

Ken Lee
An amusing example of how NOT to learn a language via song lyrics is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mh179a1gDxg
The singer’s improved version of the song is at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEbV5M59Xc8&feature=related
Yet the lady in question has mastered one foreign language:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxRwbQcCN4s

I have rarely been disappointed when for example searching for a song I heard in Spain perhaps decades ago, and of which I remembered just a few words. Just occasionally I have had to use a Google search – there are even websites which help to trace lyrics - but usually YouTube is enough to satisfy my nostalgia.  ¡Viva TuTubo!