Analysis of the Country-brand presence in the educational content of the Cervantes Institute Virtual Classroom for Spanish students

Abstract

Language, by passing on the culture it represents, generates wealth and international influence, thus, a reflection of the country-brand as a corporate identity. It should be required to E/LE methods, especially institutional ones, that the contents of their didactic materials are presented in such a way as to have the elements (people, places, themes, traditions) that best represent the own culture, which contributes to the acquisition of the communicative competence as the situation-related aspects will be shared more easily. In this article, a critical analysis of the Aula Virtual del Español of Instituto Cervantes is carried out in order to detect to what extent the design of these didactic materials is promoting or not a correct brand image, and consequently, whether or not they are suitable from a didactic point of view.