El recurso audiovisual como herramienta didáctica en la clase de español L2/LE

Abstract

This article begins by highlighting how integrating the work with audiovisual resources in the L2/LE class can facilitate the understanding of linguistic aspects and make the student cope more safely with lexical and grammatical content. It also points out how audiovisual material can increase student motivation, since it makes the target language and culture much more attractive and easier to decipher. This paper reflects on the convenience of bringing audiovisual resources to the language classroom, since for a long time the video materials that have been brought to L2/LE classes focused mainly on linguistic work, ignoring the cultural component present in all audiovisual production. Through the viewing of a movie or a chapter of a series, students are aware of other communicative aspects, such non-verbal language or socio-cultural aspects, wich are inserted in the real communication situations that we can find in the scenes. For all these reasons, the article shows that the cinema and other audiovisual materials are and should be first-rate didactic tool in L2/LE classes, since we can achieve in the classroom an integration of all skills fully contextualized: our students will read, listen, and speak in real communication situations. This work reviews the evolution of the use of audiovisual materials in the classroom, deals with the implications of the communicative approach and the exploitation of audiovisual resources, and explains the main advantages and disadvantages of working in language classes with audiovisual productions and how to select the most appropriate. Finally, three classroom activities are proposed to work with the movie Diarios de motocicleta (2004).