Traidora by Gente de Zona

3/1/2017

With my Spanish I students for the last two years I have taught Gente de Zona’s catchy song, “Traidora”. Riding on the success of Gente de Zona’s “Bailando” with my Spanish I students, this collaboration with Marc Anthony was a huge hit.

This tune is from the genre dembow, which is reggeton with a Cuban flare. Although the lyrics to some reggeton songs can be daunting to teach to Spanish I students, the pace, subject matter and genre of this anti-love song are language classroom appropriate and quite refreshing, especially to students who are tired of listening love songs!

If you’d like to teach the tune “Traidora” by Gente de Zona, please follow this link to my song warm-up resource: click here.

Afterwards, consider giving the interactive exam, which can be found at this link:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Song-Exam-Traidora-by-Gente-d-Zona-ft-Marc-Anthony-3037770

The impressive music video to the tune can be found at the following link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oMfwHYSRIk *Note: when showing the music video in class, I skip the segment from 2:50 to 3:00.

Enjoy! And happy teaching!!

3 Comments

Sofia Vega-Ormeno

3/4/2017 06:39:57 pm

Hi Katherine,

My name is Sofia and I’m a Spanish teacher at Forest Park High School in Baltimore City. I want to thank you for constantly sharing insights on your Spanish classroom and teaching journey through this blog. In the past two weeks your blog has really become a “one-stop shop” for me to gain resources I can use in my own classroom that are both cultural and relevant (especially due to your wonderful curation of teachable Spanish songs). This particular post helped me bring culture and fun to a lesson, seeing as though a lot of my students learning Spanish aren’t familiar with the genre dembow, but are familiar with reggeton. Likewise, during the month of February I found it refreshing to teach La Vida en un Carnaval by Celia Cruz for the same reasons. As an Afro-Latina, I love teaching students about Afro-Latinidad and seeing them acknowledge African influence in Latinx culture. I, myself, grew up listening to Celia and admire the acknowledgement she has received in the National Museum of African American History. Nonetheless, in order to be relevant, the topics we teach don’t necessarily all have to touch on race. For instance, I love how you taught Tú Si Sabes Quererme by Natalia LaFourcade for Valentine’s Day. It’s a beautiful love song I think anyone can relate to. I find that playing games like “Amigo Secreto” (Secret Friend) helps assess presentational, interpersonal, and interpretive standards on Valentine’s Day too.

I know a lot of world language teachers use songs to teach new vocabulary and test students’ understanding of certain topics. Would you or anyone else reading this blog share your thoughts on emphasizing the use of songs in your Spanish curriculum? Is it based on any particular research? How often do you teach and test using song?

Katherine Lupton link

3/6/2017 03:46:52 pm

Thank you for your comment Sofia! It is great to hear from you and hear that the blog has been helpful to you.

To answer your question, I use song warm-ups almost daily (usually going through two songs in a month) and song exams about twice a month, at the end of each song cycle. I actually wrote a research paper on the subject for my coursework for my M.Ed. at Hopkins, titled "The Effectiveness of Instruction Through Song in the Foreign Language Classroom".

One of my favorite articles was published by A.J. Speh and S.D. Ahramjian in 2010, entitled "Teaching Without a Common Language: Synchronicities Between the Pedagogies of Music and Second Language Acquisition". This paper takes a step towards connecting the pedagogical benefits of furthering language acquisition through music, and exploring the benefits that educators can bring students in contact with foreign language material in an organic way.

Throughout the study outlined in the paper, the focus is on the practical methodologies that can enable a student to learn a language without resorting to “translation,” or an intermediary form of expression that dilutes comprehension and ultimate mastery (Speh 2010). Speh states that when using musical learning to support language acquisition, teachers can help students by developing a learning environment that produces less performance anxiety and makes it easier for students to remember new words and musical patterns. Speh also states that this method of using music to assist in language acquisition allows students to “let go of excessive focus on technique and errors” and focus on the real goal of learning a language, communication (Speh 2010). That last point was one that I really connected with.

Another really interesting article I found was by Susanne L. Medina, Ph.D, entitled "Using Music to Enhance Second Language Acquisition: From Theory to Practice". This article really helped to guide my decisions in how to effectively apply music as a tool in second-language acquisition in the classroom in Baltimore.

Hope that helps a bit! I really enjoyed researching this method and found many resources that helped to back this method in the foreign language classroom. Let me know if you have any other questions, and thanks again for your comment!

Best wishes,

Katherine

Rabin Gaire link

9/22/2023 06:16:11 am

First time here at your blog and wanted to say i enjoyed reading this.

Updates

Traidora by Gente de Zona

Leave a Reply.

HEY THERE! NICE TO MEET YOU!