beliefs & Practices

When it comes to teaching a second language, proficiency and not mastery is what drives my instruction. If students know all of the irregular present subjunctive forms, but cannot use them to communicate, then they are not becoming competent speakers of the language.

While input is key, and, I would argue, necessary, for acquisition to occur, I also lean more toward interaction and sociocultural theory of second language acquisition, with students using each other and various other tools to mediate the language they are learning. Assessment is not an individual activity in my classroom; learners are constantly involved with one another, making sense of the language and using it to negotiate communication.

How I Promote Proficiency

I believe that language learners must be able to use the language (and perfection is not expected) rather than simply know about it. Filling in a blank or completing various verb drills will not only not entice learners, it will not have the greatest effect to help them internalize the language.

How I engage and motivate learners

I believe that showing learners where we have been, how far we have progressed, and also what we will be able to do with the language at the completion of a unit can provide motivation.

Engagement in my classrooms comes in the form of various activities, completed individually, in pairs, or in groups. Oftentimes, students may start out thinking silently and jotting down thoughts and ideas, then transition to sharing their thinking in pairs, and finally in larger groups. Engagement also comes in the form of encouraging students to use their Spanish and to not worry about speaking perfectly. I always remind students that we are constantly learning, even in our first language, and the goal is to become competent speakers of the language, not necessarily native speakers.

how I teach grammar and vocabulary

In many language classes I tend to rely mostly on Focus on Form and meaning-based language, rather than focus on formS, or isolated grammatical concepts and exhaustive vocabulary lists. In Focus on Form, I can also use input enhancement to highlight the focal point I want students to notice, and also have students complete consciousness-raising activities. I have transitioned to more meaning-based instruction from traditional grammatical instruction (or the Present, Practice, Produce model) from my first 2-3 years of teaching.

As Nassaji and Fotos (2011) remind us, the various pedagogical activities we use in the classroom tend to occur on a continuum of meaning-focused to form-focused.

how I raise intercultural awareness

In the past, I taught culture as knowledge about different countries as mostly factoids, complete with a worksheet that had surface level questions. I even put some of the information on the unit test! In my first year of teaching, I made students memorize the capitals and locations of all Latin American countries, and Spain, as I thought geographical knowledge equals intercultural competence.

Now, I encourage students to reflect on the cultural differences between various topics, mainly products, practices, perspectives. It is through reflection, and adaptation to these differences, that intercultural competence happens. My goal is for students to progress from "That's different," to "That's different, but I think this is why."