| Language learning is a skill and talent that every human being is born with – which certainly includes the students of the Spanish Basic Language Program. Learning a language is unavoidable with sufficient input and interaction, and students will find these very tools in my language classroom. My responsibilities as an instructor include teaching language as much as that entails exposing my students to the language and providing activities to put it to use – but the rest of it will be done by their already formed language-learning system. Learning a second language should not be the burden of memorization and repetitive practice characteristic of “learning” other subjects (such as history or math). Instead, the classroom setting allots us (language learners and instructors alike) time to practice language naturally, through communication and interaction – and not monotonous, text-centered drills. | |
| Teaching a foreign language corresponds easily with my own interest in learning foreign languages, so as a student myself I have had the same experiences as the students in my classroom. I have studied three languages in a classroom setting and have sat through meaningless repetition, enjoyed creative discourse, and endured everything in between. While I cannot yet claim to bring teaching experience to the classroom, I can state that I have learned and failed to learn languages because of the same ineffective methods my students have suffered for years in middle school, high school, and perhaps even in other college classes. I can reinforce my teaching with the positive experiences I had as a learner as well as with the theory (which explains my positive experiences) that I have studied as an instructor-in-training. |
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| This combination of experiences and theory creates an atmosphere of efficiency in the classroom: students no longer have to trudge through pages of grammar and vocabulary drills on their way to acquiring a language. This goal will instead be reached by maximizing classroom time by absorbing information before putting it to use. Students will complete grammar and vocabulary lessons on Angel, a process that allows them to work at their own pace on their own time. In the classroom we then put the new material (i.e., the new structure or series of vocabulary) to use by progressing through activities emphasizing meaning and communication (instead of those explicitly addressing the form). This first allows students to recall and respond to what they have learned and then produce and manipulate the forms themselves. |
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Cádiz, Spain |
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| Using the material can be accomplished through written output and oral production, which present the student not only the opportunity to utilize the newly introduced forms but also the chance to make the language his or her own. What is the preterite tense without telling about our own experiences? What importance do possessive pronouns have unless we are talking about things that actually matter to us? While seemingly fundamental, these questions have long been overlooked but they will play a central role in my classroom. Students interested in paradigms, explanations, and the history of Spanish can take a linguistics class after they get through my class – but while I teach in the SBLP, my goal will be communication, not metalinguistic knowledge that can be explained through the students’ first language. |
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| Communication is best facilitated through means adaptable and familiar to the student. Reading passages and explanations from textbooks is alien to their lives; for better or worse, students spend much of their time occupied with technology – using computers, iPods, email, the Internet, and television. They are accustomed to the accessibility of these media as well as their ability to be personalized; technology use in the SBLP bases itself on the same advantages. As mentioned above, students can access their lessons online at any time, work through them at their own pace, repeat difficult material, and thus personalize the process of learning. Part of that personalization includes instant feedback on progress and performance – a benefit that is often not available in class when one instructor must guide a class of over 20 students. Lessons will be taught with technology within the classroom as well: with PowerPoints, visual media, and music, among other methods. Other forms of technology, such as Podcasts, websites, and current music and movies using the second language, enhance the learners’ experience by providing opportunities outside planned activities to gather more input. |
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My hope for my students is to introduce them to (or expand their knowledge of) a new culture. Learning a language is more than earning enough credits to meet a requirement or to pass an exam. In the United States most of us are dually spoiled and deprived by only learning – or even needing to learn – a single language. People in places like Europe have the opportunity, possibly the necessity, to learn foreign languages to be able to properly enjoy, experience, and learn about the cultures and people as close to them as our neighbors in nearby states are to us. Learning Spanish serves two purposes: it opens my students to the world of foreign countries in Europe, Central America, and South America and also to a large community in their own backyard. Language is an intrinsic part of culture and is often one the last traits (along with food and religion) to be eradicated from a displaced or conquered people, so learning any second language, but particularly Spanish, gives students the power to connect with another culture, people, and history in a very intimate way. |
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Picos de Europa, Asturias, Spain |
Language learning can be achieved (almost) painlessly with the right approach. Language instructors are moving away from the mundane language classroom of drills, oral repetition, and activities that alienate students and reality. By incorporating meaningful communication and the technology they have grown up with into the classroom, students will unavoidably become better second-language speakers. After all, my students have already done the hard part – they have all already mastered a language. |
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