It's been a wonderful summer this year. The weather has been great for getting outside, playing in the water and in the gardens. I hope you and your children have spent plenty of time outside enjoying all Virginia has to offer. It's almost time to go back to school and start thinking about math, science, language arts, music, P.E., art, library and Spanish.
Ah...Spanish. Most children have not heard one Spanish word since June when they went home for the summer. Maybe they heard a little bit on TV through Dora or another television program and that's great. But when they get back to Spanish class and it's 100% Spanish all the time it might feel like they've forgotten all they had learned before. Please do not panic! They will catch on sooner than later. They might tell you they don't understand a thing I say and that I go too fast or don't tell them what I'm saying in English. Well, I won't tell them in English. Not even the new kids who haven't had Spanish ever before. I will go slowly and repeat myself and show them what I mean with gestures. I will review a lot of the basic vocabulary we need to get through the year. But I won't tell them what I mean in English. Why not? Well, let me show you some excerpts from an article written by Helena Curtain, author of Languages and Children, Making the Match.
As we focus on learners and what they need from their teachers during language classes, one of the most important elements is their need to access the new language through the language itself and not through English. Janice Erickson, ACTFL past president, compared using English to teach another language like teaching kids how to swim without water. We know from research in second-language acquisition that learners need to be surrounded with input that is meaningful and interesting in order to acquire a new language.
How Much Target Language Use is Appropriate?
We must provide this kind of input consistently, from the very beginning and for every class period. Many teachers speak exclusively in the target language; others recommend use of the new language 95 to 100 percent of the time. ACTFL in its position statement on this topic (http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4368 - targetlang) recommends that the target language be used a minimum of 90% of the time. It is especially important that the teacher use the new language for regular classroom tasks, such as giving directions and managing behavior because this demonstrates to the students that the new language is useful and works for all the business of the classroom.
Teacher as Culture Bearer
Language is the key to the culture. Even though not all teachers are native speakers, all teachers serve as culture bearers--the representatives of the culture in the classroom. When students have the feeling of being surrounded by the language, they also have the feeling of what it might be like to actually be in a place where this language is spoken. If we spend much of classroom time in English, we are actually denying students access to the language and the culture.
The rest of this article can be accessed here: http://nclrc.org/about_teaching/topics/feature.html#new but you'll need to scroll down to find this article.
I speak almost 100% Spanish from the beginning to establish the norms and expectations. I speak almost 100% Spanish so they can learn the language. I speak almost 100% Spanish so they can understand the culture and feel the culture. I don't measure on a daily basis if I speak 100% or 90% in each class. But I think my students will say it's a very high number. I know the amount of English I speak is very small. At the end of the school year 2011 a first grader who had been with me for 2 years by then was surprised when he overheard me speaking English to another child. He asked me "So...you speak Spanish AND English?" He never knew I could even speak English. That made me very happy. Please tell your children that if they continue to TRY to understand the Spanish, they will amaze themselves at how much they actually learn!
I am looking forward to another wonderful year of teaching Spanish to the great students of Grange Hall Elementary. I hope you and your children are looking forward to this school year as well.
