Even before learning about all the different methods of teaching foreign languages, the Natural Approach had been one that had seemed the most effective to me. During my Education 500 experience, I worked with an elementary school Spanish teacher for grades two through five. This teacher spoke in the target language part of the time, choosing to use repetition as one of her methods; she would say something in Spanish, repeat it in English so that the students knew what she was saying. The students learned a decent amount of Spanish, but it was nothing different than most other classes; they spoke Spanish perhaps 10% of the time. However, halfway through the semester this teacher left on maternity leave and her long term subsitute took her place. This substitute had a completely new method of teaching - the Natural Approach. From the first day that she began teaching in the class, she refused to speak a word of English except to give instructions at times, although she usually still instructed the students in Spanish. For the first few days, the students were completely overwhelmed. They had gone from a classroom where they were not required to read, write and speak in the target language all the time. Though they were intimidated at first, the students soon began to warm up to this approach. The substitute preferred a teaching style that focused on reading paragraphs of short stories and learning the vocabulary necessary to comprehend the story rather than teaching the students lists of random vocabulary words each day and having that be the extent of the lesson. Not only did this teacher require the students to read stories and answer comprehension questions about the story in Spanish, but she also required them to write a summary of the story in complete Spanish after they had read it, with an ungraded assessment given at the end of each story unit. The stories used all different tenses, which gave the students an exposure to preterite, imperfect, future, etc.
I had been skeptical of this approach when the substitute teacher had first started, but by the end of my Education 500 experience I had seen what a great approach the Natural Approach really is. The students had been nervous at first but by the end of the semester, they were able to comprehend the stories with almost no problems. They began using more and more Spanish in their speaking and writing and although they would make many errors, they knew a great deal more of the vocabulary and grammatical structures than they had before. They also began using different tenses in their writing which was something that I was amazed by; as they had been exposed to the preterite in one of the stories, in their assessments some of the students remembered that the teacher had taught them that "comio" is the third person singular preterite tense of "comer" and wrote comio instead of come, changing the tense correctly without even understanding what they were doing! This was something that was completely amazing to me as students were not even introduced to the present tense and how to conjugate verbs until the seventh or eighth grade level of Spanish at the school I was working at. This experience only reaffirmed my belief that teaching in the target language as much as possible is completely necessary to promote growth and understanding in the L2 no matter what age the students are. While I think it may be necessary to use a little more English than necessary in the introductory level of a foreign language class, I think that the teacher must begin to limit the amount of English in the classroom as soon as possible. After seeing the benefits of the Natural Approach, it completely makes sense as to why it works; as Spanish majors at UNH, we were required to study abroad. Is it not true that the largest amount of growth in our knowledge of Spanish occurred when we were abroad? For me, I definitely learned much more while studying abroad in Spain than I did in the semesters of Spanish courses I had taken at the university level. While of course younger students in elementary, middle and high school cannot study abroad, it is important to bring the "abroad" part to them - by immersing students in as much of the language as possible. Only then will they be able to grow in the language and become more proficient.
First of all, I love this story because it helps us see an effective method of teaching in the target language with long term results! I think that this is something that as teachers we must look at with a long-term goal in mind. I always think back upon my Spanish classes in 7th and 8th grade (I went to a different school K-6) and wonder why I had to memorize seemingly random words for weeks and weeks. I can easily look at something and memorize it, but I am not really learning it. I found that my middle school Spanish classes really emphasized memorization rather than actual usage. I love that you mentioned that the teacher had them read a story in Spanish and taught them RELEVANT vocabulary that helped them understand the meaning of the story. Without context like that, vocabulary is useless in most cases.
ReplyDeleteTeaching students relevant vocabulary is the most important thing in my opinion - I mean, what is the sense of teaching students lists of vocabulary words for household items when you are going to require them to read a story about something completely unrelated? I think that by teaching the students relevant vocabulary, it helped them pick the words out much easier in the story and didn't confuse them as much. They were still learning 15-20 words per story, but they were helpful to understanding the context of the story which was great
DeleteLove this. That substitute must have been very intimidating to those very young students when she was speaking all Spanish, but it seems like it worked! I More and more in this class I am realizing that it is SO important to speak in the target language because that's when students will learn the most...apparently no matter how young or inexperienced they are. I remember in high school that my Spanish 3 teacher only spoke Spanish to us and I learn so much more with her than I did in my Spanish 5 AP class just because the exposure to the language really stuck with me and it made it both challenging and engaging. I liked your comment that even though these younger kids cannot go abroad to learn a language just yet, so it is important that we bring the language and culture to them in order for them to get the most realistic experience as possible.
ReplyDeleteThe exposure to the language is the most important thing - like you wrote about in your entry, the best way for students to pick up their L2 is to acquire it naturally. Of course the students were scared and didn't know what was going on at first but by the end of the semester, they were honestly at the level of most lower level Spanish I students in high school which was amazing. I truly believe that teaching in the target language 100% when students are younger helps the L2 stick with them as they continue to study it and maybe even helps them advance more than perhaps students who were in a classroom with the target language being spoken 70% of the time. It's definitely important that no matter how young our students are, we bring the cultural and immersion aspects to them!
DeleteI think that this shows exactly how a teacher can define a learning experience. It shows that the substitute teacher knew exactly how she wanted her classroom run and the students adjusted to her teaching style. I think that a switch like this can occur in any classroom; a teacher just has to be willing to do it. Students will learn to cope with any specific teaching style. It also seemed that the subsitutes use of authentic material, that is relevent reading and vocab really helped to promote growth in the target language. It would seem that more teachers today really need to focus on the inclusion of authentic material or at least make vocab, etc. relevent in a way other than a memorized list.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you - all it takes is a willing teacher. Students can hate the method all that they want, like these students did at first, but after they begin to hear the language more I truly believe that it allows them to open up to it and acquire it more. Teachers definitely need to learn how to promote relevant material that goes along with an activity or a story rather than lists of vocabulary words without context. I hated all the times I would have to learn vocabulary words for chores or food or camping, etc., only to have the remainder of the lesson be about how to use gustar or another verb. It doesn't make sense to do this in the classroom so I think we really need to give our students relevant vocabulary words that go along with the lesson being presented.
Delete