New horizons in the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language: teaching Spanish through Sports.

Abstract

This article presents a new approach to the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language (ELE): Spanish through Sports. After a theoretical introduction on the presence of Sports in our history and in the Spanish society, we deal with language and Sports. Then, we focus on the teaching of Spanish through Sports by checking its role in two key documents: the CEFR and the Plan Curricular del Instituto Cervantes. Thus, we address the teaching of Spanish concerning Sports, by exploring three possible ways: Spanish through Sports, Spanish for Sport purposes and Sports in CLIL. We consider the challenges it implies to conclude that the development of this approach can make a great contribution to expand the horizons of Spanish as a foreign language.