Teaching Spanish with news and music

August 30, 2009 11:53 PM

I am teaching a high school Spanish class for the first time and need some help. I'm looking for 2 things, short news clips in Spanish and free songs with translations.

I already found a ton of help from similar previous askmefi questions but this is the specific needs I have:

(The students are in high school and are either in 2nd or 3yr Spanish)

# 1 I would like the students to watch a short (2-5 mins) news segment in Spanish. I have tried already BBC Mundo and CNN Spanish and other similar sites, but the Spanish spoken is really fast for the students and they get lost. Does anyone know any other site or resource that could provide something current about the world but in either slower or easier to understand Spanish?

# 2 - I would like to use also music to teach Spanish. The problem I keep encountering in my research is that the songs to teach Spanish tend to be for really young children, or expensive (looking for free if possible), or lacking translation or usefulness in teaching vocab or verbs.

I'd greatly appreciate any help, even if it's a site that doesn't address the questions but that just helped you understand Spanish better.

All my students have laptops so any site that streams would work as well. Thank you so much for any help!

posted by dealing away to education (12 comments total)

#1 -- http://www.newsinslowspanish.com/home.php
posted by lockestockbarrel at 12:26 AM on August 31 [1 favorite]

Everything on The Internet Archive is free. For example:

For some reason, many more hits for media in "spanish" [16,490] than in "español" [172] but there you go.

One highlight, for my money (and I think for yours) is the excellent and very fun program Saltsa Berde. Yes, that's an odd spelling—because Saltsa Berde is broadcast on Radio Free Altsasu in Euskal Herria, the Basque country. It is mostly in Spanish, but has a few smatterings in Basque, a language worth hearing a little bit. One of the reasons I jumped on this one is because my experience is that the best speakers of Spanish for learners to listen to are the non-native Spanish speakers in the southwest and northwest of Spain; Basques and Catalans tend to speak Spanish more slowly (as you'd asked for) and to enunciate a bit better simply because it's not as much their language and they don't get as free with it as pure native speakers. There's a really wonderful array of music he plays, too; everything from (of course) Salsa to obscure Argentine punk bands to Duran Duran and such. You're likely to find some good music to show them, too, music that isn't that "ah-beh-ceh-che" kiddie stuff they were forced to teach me in high school Spanish. (Heh.) There are 37 one-hour episodes from 2007 and 2008 there, all of them, like most of the content on the Internet Archive, in streaming format as well as available for download.

The classic 1971 documentary film Centinelas del Silencio, an aerial look at the Mayan and Aztec ruins of Mexico narrated in Spanish by Ricardo Montalban. Not an incredible transfer—this has some of that old 'film-strip' sound, so if you're going for the retro high school feel, this'd be a way to do it—but the visuals are still stunning, the narration is forceful and clear, and it's streamable and downloadable. And it's also only twenty minutes long, a good length, I imagine, for high school attention spans.

A whole lot of news-type video content apparently uploaded by someone by the name of Jose Antonio Zapata Cabral in the Badajoz area of western Spain; this includes a bunch of internet news reports which I have not reviewed enough to speak about as far as accuracy is concerned. Seems interesting.

"Un Vivéncia [auto] Etnográphia," a short, spoken-language-free student film from Barcelona.

Eight-minute film on the highly unhealthy and carcinogenic ovens used by the Incawasi in Peru and a safer new alternative which they can use.

I have no freaking clue what's going on here

An amateur primer on pronouncing American English for Spanish-speakers. "Se dice ('They say' ?) la 'YOU KNOW?' muchas veces..."

Hugo Chavez speaks in Buenos Aires, 2007.

A neat documentary about the remote Aysen archipelago of Chile.

Classic anti-propagandist propaganda from 1937.

There's plenty more. You should browse around yourself, but I think that'll give you a good start.
posted by koeselitz at 2:17 AM on August 31

There are a large number of very useful links in this blog, in my opinion. It seems to belong to an Australian Spanish learner but so far (as a former teacher of Spanish) I'm really impressed with the range of links.
posted by Wilder at 3:01 AM on August 31

What do you mean by "the songs to teach Spanish" ? Is this something other than finding awesome songs on e.g. Youtube, building an activity around it, and making sure the students know the artist name so they can find more?

My favorite music in a foreign language activity is getting the song, the lyrics with blanks in place of most words, and the list of words removed. Listen, fill in blanks, repeat. It made a nice class-closing routine. After a couple weeks of the same song, we would go over the right answers and words. This was something I loved doing so much I have developed some sheets for people I teach Spanish too. If this is an interesting idea for you, I can share them by email.

(Ah... I see - the things you find are lacking translation or don't teach your intended vocab. Some things you just have to develop yourself to get them right. Really...)
posted by whatzit at 5:10 AM on August 31

When I was learning Spanish, the teacher used current popular music really effectively. He wrote out what we couldn't quite hear and helped us figure out the translations. I think that 99 cents on iTunes or a little time on YouTube would get you a big chunk of class time.

Hip tunes that have clear lyrics include:

Desaparecidos by Orishas --lots of pretérito; also could use to discuss history and current events (letra; could also compare it to the Rubén Blades original, "Desapariciones")

Just about anything from Manu Chao's "Clandestino" CD. You could use his "Desaparecido" as another take on the word.

Gallina by Ozomatli --commands!

A Diós le pido by Juanes --subjunctive galore (letra)

Violeta by Ozomatli --meaningful switch from "soy" to "fuí" (letra)

Not so clear (Spain, aspirations, contractions) but cool:

No llorá by Bebe

Con la mano levantá by Macao
posted by PatoPata at 6:29 AM on August 31

P.S. Rubén Blades Desapariciones
posted by PatoPata at 6:30 AM on August 31

You guys are great! Thank you! Please keep them coming. I'm only teaching this Spanish class this one year to help out the school. We hope to have a full-time Spanish teacher next year. My other hat is the history teacher.
posted by dealing away at 9:53 AM on August 31

I think PatoPata has the right idea- I'm only a few years out of high school, and I learned a lot more in high school Spanish from "current" songs than I did from anything else. My teacher had us stand in a big circle and sing songs that she gave us the lyrics for, then we would translate either individually or as a class.

The best ones were Juanes songs, especially off of his first album, Un Dia Normal- I still find myself singing Es Por Ti *all the time*, and also La Historia de Juan- they're easy to understand but are also complicated enough that they're still a challenge to comprehend at first. Actually, I can't even think of any of the other non-Juanes ones, my teacher was kind of madly in love with him...but I definitely learned a lot of vocabulary that I never would have learned previously.

and now I'm going to spend the rest of the day going "y es por tiiiiiiiiiiii". damn.
posted by kro at 10:00 AM on August 31

Juanes detour: I think "Un día normal" is his second and more widely-known album. The first that I got was "Fíjate bien," which is more political and edgy (watch where you step, you could step on a mine and no one will help you--not the rebels, not the government, etc. etc.). "Un día normal" has more love songs. Probably either one would appeal to HS students, with Fíjate bien attracting the more cynical or political kids. Juanes apparently softened up between CDs.
posted by PatoPata at 11:22 AM on August 31

My Spanish teacher used kids music and I LOVED it and still remember the songs.
posted by k8t at 4:32 PM on August 31

Cafe Tacuba is great for Spanish classes. Their version of "Ojalá que llueva café" works for a lesson on the present subjunctive, and "Esa noche" for past subjunctive. Also, "Esperando (como llegar a la casa de quique)" is perfect for teaching how to follow directions to get somewhere.

Also, chilanga banda is really fun for any grade level, because the slang is so goofy. My 7th graders asked to hear that one over and over again.
posted by umbú at 8:50 PM on August 31

Oh--I just watched the chilanga banda video, and the pasties wouldn't work in a classroom, but the song is great.
posted by umbú at 8:51 PM on August 31