Cultural Representations of Spain and Latin America in Spanish as a Foreign Language. A Critique

Abstract

Though the surge in the study of Spanish as a foreign language (ELE — acronym in Spanish — español como lengua extranjera) is far from reaching that of English, research shows they share a common denominator: an interest to promote a prestige variant and a tendency to deny the barbarous colonial past regardless of the supposed language unity claimed in the Pan-Hispanic policy. This paper problematizes otherization processes in the discourse embedded in the passages and dialogues dealing with the Latin American cultural history. Based on primary sources, previous research, Grounded Theory on Critical Applied Linguistics, and an ideological conceptual square, a survey of twenty-one textbooks in the market today revealed that ELE otherizes the Latin American cultural history in the reading passages of cultural sections and language-focused exercises. This process is characterized by distortions of the past and present, generalizations, and utter lies to conceal what has happened since 1492 to pave the way for representations of Latin America as fertile ground for a new wave of exploitation in the 21st century. The paper concludes that by tackling these biases in textbooks, ELE teachers would assume an ethical position to help learners resist neoliberal ideology and policies. Conceived as a contribution to Critical Pedagogy, the paper suggests further research within ELE and comparisons with other colonial languages.