Disponibilidad léxica y referentes culturales del Plan curricular del Instituto Cervantes: un estudio exploratorio con universitarios portugueses

Abstract

This investigation is part of the research on lexical availability in Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL) in Portugal. Its main goal is to determine the references of Spanish culture indicated by a group of university students, with the purpose of evaluating their learning outcomes and, based on these, reflect on possible adjustments in the planning and teaching method of this content, based on the inventory of cultural references of the Instituto Cervantes Curriculum Plan (ICCP), a guidance document for pedagogical practice in SFL. To this end, an exploratory study was carried out in which the lexical production of 40 university students of the curricular unit "Contemporary Spanish Culture" was compared with the content of the ICCP repertoire in its different phases (approximation, deepening and consolidation), in order to determine their degree of coincidence. The results indicate that the informants activated many cultural references from the historical-political sphere, in line with the syllabus of the subject, and few stereotypes, which points to the validity of the teaching strategies implemented to transmit the cultural dimension of the Spanish language in this academic context.