Interaction with People - Spanish Program
Elderly people and tourists are two ideal groups with whom students can interact.
Most communities organize some types of
activities for the elderly, either on a regular basis or in connection
with special occasions. The elderly people are usually very happy to converse
with younger people and they often only have their community
language(s) as a medium of communication.
Example Activity 1
Visits to a day care centre for the elderly where
students engage in conversations with elderly people of Spanish background
were organized in collaboration with CELAS, the Spanish Latin American
Welfare Centre.
Points to consider when organising the activity
- Contact the manager / coordinator of the centre
and obtain permission.
- Preferably take smaller groups to such kind
of visits for reasons of space and because otherwise two or three students
might end up conversing with one person.
- It is recommended that students from the upper
year levels (Years 10 and 11) participate in this kind of activity
as the students have to be able to converse freely and fluently with
the elderly and also be able to understand them well.
The Activity itself:
| Before the visit |
At the day care centre |
After the visit |
| In class prepare some questions
to ask the elderly people. Questions could focus on finding out information
about their lives and aim at collecting material for a bibliography
or they could focus on the elderly people's reasons for migrating and
the difficulties encountered in the beginning while settling down. |
Individual students sit down
with one person each and carry out a short interview of about 30 minutes.
At the end the conversation often continues on different topics and
photos are taken. |
Students write a short piece
about the elderly person with whom they have conversed. |
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