One way to keep the students engage in the targeted language is making sense for the language.  And learning the current events of the country of your target language is the best way to learn about the country and culture.

Memorization is an inevitable part of language learning.  Anything to make the practice easy would always help.

I found that it is so critical to learn the language through the discovery of culture.  It is when you understand the culture you learn to view things in different perspective and open your mind to the language.