Teaching to the Masses: The Design and Implementation of a Large Lecture Hispanic Culture Course

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Due to an increase in enrollment in upper‐level Spanish classes that posed staffing problems, the Spanish section of the Department of Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Tennessee decided to combine three sections of Spanish 331, “Introduction to Hispanic Culture,” into one large lecture course, which was offered for the first time in the spring of 2004. This study is devoted to analyzing the design of Spanish 331 in the light of recent pedagogical research as well as to discussing the successful implementation of this course. Special attention is paid to the distinguishing features of Spanish 331, in particular to the effective use of PowerPoint presentations as a means of managing a large lecture course taught in a target language, the integration of a variety of Hispanic cultures into one course, and the creation of assessment techniques and follow‐up activities.