Language Resident: Franco Rivas Quiroz

Level: Advanced

Class theme/topic discussed: LGBTIQ+ Issues  II

Goal of the class:

Students will be able to:

  • Discuss issues that affected the LGBTIQ+ both today and in the past.
  • Compare struggles among the communities in the US, Chile or their own countries.
  • Make hypothetical assumptions using the conditional form “ría” (i.e debería, podría, etc.)  and negative ones using the subjunctive (i.e no creo que sea, es poco probable que intente, etc.) 

Class structure:

Warm up:

Students see an image of a piece of news of a recent piece of news in Chile that equal marriage is now officially legal since March 1st.  Since there are students that took the class the previous semester, they compare the situation about that bill that they learned about the previous semester.  They answer the questions “what do you think about this piece of news? what are the struggles that the LGBTIQ+ faces in your countries/states?”.

Activity:

Students see the extract of a videio in which discrimination situation occured in the middle of an interview. https://youtu.be/qh7WNAG117w

In small groups they discuss the questions: ¨Do you know about any similar situation in the US or in your own country? What do you think about it?¨

Students see headlines of Chilean old news about different situations that involved the LGBT community. They discuss the way language was used and the normalization of instults to reffer to someone gay. They are encouraged to use the conditional form for affirmative assumptions (i.e “podría estar intentando mostrar…”) and the subjunctive for negative statements (i.e “no creo que esté diciendo…”). 

Lenguaje Inclusivo: The facilitator briefly explains the general rules to use inclusive Spanish in order to refer to a neutral gender or groups. In small groups, they create a story – each person ads a sentence to continue the story– using inclusive Spanish.

Wrap up:

As a group they exchange ideas on what would be some good ideas to make visible the realities and issues that the LGBTQ community faces today and how to support those who are struggling.

Resources used: Projector, Powerpoint.

Reflection: What worked/did not work? How can it be improved?

 Students were very engaged with this topic. Students had a lot of questions about the situation in Chile and it was interesting for students who took the class last semester to see the progress that has been made over the last year. They practiced using inclusive Spanish and it was a bit challenging but they were able to do it. There was a lot of vocabulary that they asked to know, and we spent some time talking about words or expressions –and some words to avoid that might be offensive– related to the topic. In general people seemed engaged.

Appendix: Newspapers’ headlines 

22 de abril de 1973, la primera protesta en Chile de disidencias sexuales  por sus derechos | Artes y Cultura | BioBioChile
LasPortadasDeTuVida📰 Twitterissä: "1984 Agosto 23 - "Murió paciente del  cáncer gay chileno" Así se retrataba entonces el SIDA en Chile. ¿Qué te  parece? https://t.co/33Vze41LzX" / Twitter