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Not Your Typical Spanish Classes at Calvary Day School

9/28/2017

Laura Bielec and Liliam Crowley

Spanish classes at Calvary are not your typical language classes, with students memorizing seemingly endless vocabulary lists and meaningless grammar rules. We, the teachers, strive to make our classes meaningful and fun. Everyday our goals drive the day’s various activities with the students communicating, laughing, and understanding. We believe that when students have fun and are themselves participating in the language themselves, rather than solely observing, the students have a more worthwhile experience.

Participation is not only encouraged, it is also an expectation in each of our classrooms. Research is clear that language acquisition is best at an early age. “The window for acquiring spoken language opens soon after birth and tapers off first around the age of 5 years and again around the age of 10 to 12. Beyond that age, learning any language becomes more difficult” (Sousa 27-28). Based on this research, the foreign language department deliberately emphasizes high student engagement that is ongoing and active. All levels of Spanish share the same primary goals of wanting the students to have fun and to truly learn to speak Spanish. A typical day in a Spanish classroom at Calvary requires a lot of interaction on the student's part. Ordinarily, you will find the students singing, creating skits or videos, writing, orally creating stories that interest them, and interacting with their teacher and classmates in Spanish. Each one of our class activities aligns with our goal of having fun, while most importantly, having the students use their second language.

Our emphasis placed on the importance of communication in the language classroom is supported by much research and personal experience. In contrast, a traditional method to teaching a second language may likely involve learning the grammar without a strong emphasis on personal application or its use. We do teach grammar; however, we apply grammar in a way that allows the students to talk about their own personal environment and in real context. Additionally, fun is a key component to our classes. It is no secret that positivity and enjoyment lead to motivation. We believe that teaching with fun and communication as our primary goals have already proven to be beneficial to students. By the end of the school year in 17-18, we saw that at their level, our students are able to communicate for elongated periods of time, in more authentic contexts, and as a result, with more grammatical accuracy. It is a continuous goal to learn and apply new and relevant strategies to help our students grow in their second language.

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