¿Se come igual en todo el mundo? Teaching Intercultural Competence through Food

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Elizabeth McHugh
Mike Uribe

Abstract

The present teaching activity was designed for a beginner level Spanish class to develop intercultural competence in the classroom. This activity aims to develop learners’ overall knowledge and foster their skills of interpreting and relating in regard to food, food habits, and cultural implications surrounding food from different cultures. We piloted this activity in 3 online courses through Zoom. The activity begins with a class discussion to identify the students’ native cultural norms and to explore what they know about other cultures prior to explicit instruction. Then, students are shown a video about the food culture in a different country to build their knowledge base. Finally, after watching the video, the students do both a personal reflection letter and a group reflection discussion which allows students to relate and the newly-learned information to their own culture and develop their intercultural competence. These reflections are compared to the initial discussion to assess the learners’ progress in developing their intercultural competence.

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