Article published In:
ITL - International Journal of Applied LinguisticsVol. 160 (2010) ► pp.49–74
Considering Cultural Perspectives in Mexico and Peru in the Teaching of Spanish
In an effort to better understand Latin American cultural perspectives that should be communicated to students as part of their learning to function in Spanish, a survey articulating 26 hypothesized cultural perspectives of modern Latin Americans was administered to 58 individuals from Mexico and Peru. Survey items were based mainly on the Kluckhohn Model’s five areas: human nature, man-nature, time, activity and relations. Results revealed some statistically significant differences between Mexicans and Peruvians, as well as among participants based on sex, age and rural vs. urban background, but only on a very limited number of the 26 items for each of these four variables. The overall results suggested general, and sometimes very strong, agreement with most of the survey items. Only four of the items produced an average low enough to be indicative of more disagreement than agreement. Participant comments provided further insight into individual cultural perspectives. Results provide important implications regarding the cultural component in the teaching of Spanish.
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