Project: Numbers and Negotiation: A Shopper's Adventure in Spanish

Contextualization

Learning a new language is like opening a door to a new world, and Spanish, as the world's second-most spoken language, offers many new possibilities for travel, employment, and cultural exploration. Numbers are a fundamental part of learning any language; by learning Spanish numbers, you will be taking another major step toward fluency in this vast and widely spoken tongue.

Spanish numbers are used in the same ways that English numbers are used for a variety of everyday functions. They are used to count, indicate quantity, position, time, dates, perform mathematical operations, and even to indicate a phone number or someone's age.

This gives us an idea of just how vital it is to know your numbers in order to have a functional and effective command of the language. In our Spanish course, you will learn not only cardinal numbers, but also ordinal and decimal numbers. Each serves a different purpose in the language, and they are all essential to effective communication in Spanish.

Now, why is it so important to learn Spanish numbers? Well, imagine traveling to a Spanish-speaking country. You'll need to know your numbers in order to order at a restaurant, understand when the bus will arrive, buy movie tickets, or even negotiate prices at the market. Furthermore, if you are looking to work for an international company, knowing your Spanish numbers could be very helpful, especially if you are in a field that deals with a lot of data and figures.

To delve deeper into this topic and prepare for the hands-on element of this project, we suggest reading the book “Spanish for Dummies” by Susana Wald and Cecie Kraynak, which offers an excellent introduction to Spanish, including the topic of numbers. We also highly recommend using online resources such as Duolingo (www.duolingo.com) and Rosetta Stone (www.rosettastone.com), which are language learning platforms that have great programs for learning Spanish, including numbers.

Hands-on Activity

“La Tienda: Comprando en un Mundo Hispánico” (The Store: Shopping in a Hispanic World)

Objectives:

• To learn and reinforce knowledge of Spanish numbers, including cardinal, ordinal, and decimal numbers.
• To develop Spanish communication and negotiation skills.
• To practice collaboration and teamwork.

Activity Description:

Students will be divided into groups of 3-5. Each group will be responsible for creating, staffing, and running their own “tienda” (store) during a “Feria Hispana” (Hispanic Fair).

The stores will be stocked with a variety of items, such as fruits, vegetables, clothing, electronics, and more. Each item will be priced at a varying, negotiable amount, and all prices must be clearly marked in Spanish. In addition, each group will be given a set amount of “dinero” (play money) to use for purchasing items from other stores.

Students will have one week to prepare for the “Feria Hispana”. The fair will take place over the course of a single class period, during which time groups will buy and sell their products using Spanish numbers to negotiate prices, request quantities, and give and receive change.

In addition to buying and selling, each group must also create a list in Spanish of the items they purchased, the purchase price, and the selling price, using correct Spanish numbers.

Materials:

• Cardboard or plastic items to sell (i.e. fruits, clothing, etc…)
• Paper and pens for marking prices and recording sales.
• Play “dinero”.

Step-by-Step:

1. Divide the students into groups of 3-5.
2. Have each group decide what kind of store they want to have and what products they want to sell.
3. Have the students price their items in Spanish.
4. Give each group a set amount of "dinero" they can use to buy from other stores.
5. During the "Feria Hispana", have the groups negotiate and buy products from each other, using only Spanish.
6. After the fair, have each group create a list in Spanish of the items they purchased along with the purchase price and the selling price, using correct Spanish numbers.

Project Deliverables:

• A list of products sold and purchased with prices in Spanish.
• A project report following this outline:

1. Introduction: The students should contextualize the importance of Spanish numbers, relating it to the topic of the hands-on activity, and explaining the goal of the project.
2. Development: The students should theoretically explain the use of Spanish numbers (cardinal, ordinal, and decimal); detail the methodology used in the market simulation; describe the group’s performance in the simulation and present the results obtained.
3. Conclusion: The students should summarize the main points, reflect on what they learned, and highlight the conclusions about their own performance and that of their group.
4. Bibliography: Here, the students should indicate the sources of information used for the project, including books, websites, and videos.