AP Spanish Language Unit 2 Cheatsheet: Language and Culture

Determine intended audience:

• Who is the text addressing? (formal/informal, age, education level, cultural background)
• What clues signal audience? (tú vs. usted, register, cultural references)
• How does audience shape tone and content choices?

Identify point of view, perspective, tone, attitude:

• Whose viewpoint dominates? (first-person, third-person, collective)
• What emotional stance does the author take? (celebratory, critical, nostalgic, ironic)
• How do word choice and syntax reveal attitude toward the custom or celebration?

Common confusions: Tone ≠ topic. A text about a festival can have a critical or celebratory tone.

Standard conventions to apply:

• Capitalization: Proper nouns, sentence beginnings; Spanish does not capitalize days, months, or adjectives of nationality unless at sentence start
• Orthography: Correct spelling, including accent marks (tilde, acute, diaeresis)
• Accents: Distinguish meaning (sí/si, té/te, más/mas) and mark nondefault stress: words ending in a vowel, n, or s are normally stressed on the next-to-last syllable; words ending in another consonant are normally stressed on the last syllable.
• Punctuation: Inverted question/exclamation marks at the start, standard ones at the end; semicolons for related clauses

Spanish as a global language:

• Spoken across multiple continents; official or de facto national language in about 20 countries (21 if Puerto Rico is included)
• Variations in vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar by region (Spain, Mexico, Caribbean, South America, Central America)
• Influences from indigenous languages, English, and other contact languages

Cultural implications:

• Regional identity and pride in language varieties
• Code-switching and multilingualism in border/diaspora communities
• Spanish language as vehicle for cultural values, traditions, and worldviews

For Unit 2 tasks: Recognize that Spanish-speaking cultures are diverse; avoid generalizing one region's customs to all Spanish speakers.