March of James 3 Years, Sydney 5 Years, and 2 adult mothers learning Spanish
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March 1, 2007
It's been tough to get the kids to speak Portuguese to each other when they're around me. I'm trying not to say, "Fala portuguese" ("Speak Portuguese) so they won't rebel against the language nazi. I'll usually just ask a question about what one of them has just said, speaking in Portuguese and that'll click them over, but only for a few sentences.
I may end up part of the Portuguese preschool starting up in the fall. Should be exciting.
Last night on my break from the 3 hour Portuguese class, I called home. I told Sydney how the students were having trouble with the word, "Sim" ("Yes"...but hard to pronunciate). She wasn't thinking about the pronunciation, which is only natural to her, but was thinking of meaning. She asked incredulously, "Eles podem dizer 'nao'?" ("Well, can they say 'no'?)
March 5, 2007
Add James/Sydney: We were in the car today and I wasn’t responding to something James was saying. I think maybe I just wasn’t paying attention or being responsive as every mother must always be. Anyway, Sydney told him, “Speak Portuguese to Mamae”. Then on another outing not much later, Sydney was doing her Portuguese-English mix so common after picking her up from preschool. James said to her, “speak Portuguese to Mamae” I’ve pretty much given up on their speaking Portuguese to each other. They will do it naturally if I’ve just been included in the conversation or add something in or if we’re doing a very specific task like baking cookies or playing UNO.
Sydney is very into reading. She can “read” a book I made that just had simple words on flash cards written over the more complex text that used to be there. It’s just words like “Vamos Banhar” (Let’s take a bath) and the picture of a kid in the bath makes it pretty easy to guess from context. Sometimes she is sounding out the word though.
March 6, 2006
Bickie and Judy are doing well in Spanish. It sounds like their teacher is really funny, outgoing, always keeping the students on their toes. Once I saw the textbook I wondered how on earth someone could make a class of that, but obviously she’s doing the extras it takes to make it entertaining and relevant. Happy to talk about how to say naughty things like, “butt” to keep it fun.
Today they were discussing how they did body parts. Bickie couldn’t remember “eyebrows”. I made a comment that it was a bit odd to be working on a specific word like “eyebrows” after only a few hours of class. I said, “I mean, it seems to me you should be working to express yourselves, to greet others, etc.” (Or something like that, I really don’t remember, but it was something know-it-all-ish.) Judy said, “So do you think she should focus on other types of vocabulary?” Judy, unlike anyone I’ve ever met, can say something and give no hint what she’s thinking, no idea of the undercurrent idea. Should be in the CIA. Anyway, so I couldn’t tell if she was intrigued or irritated or just surprised at my questioning the teacher’s decision of vocabulary focus. I did realize that I need to be aware of how my “observing” Bickie and Judy might change the situation. I’m going to try not to be so vocal the next time.
It was interesting as regards vocabulary that Judy said she had to write it before she can remember it. I thought she meant she had to see the word written, as opposed to just hearing it (MANY students, including myself, are like that…more visual learners). But she corrected to say, “No, I actually have to write it myself.” Interesting. Perhaps it’s the same idea behind writing spelling words 10 times each. I do know with memorizing lies for a play, I often write the words over and over. It’s just something I never thought about using in class—who knows, could be a good tool (boring, but maybe useful).
Earlier one of the other mothers had said that they thought you just can’t learn the language well until you go to the country. Judy asked what I thought about that (I was glad she asked b/c I have strong opinions on that but don’t want to push…I have a push tendency I have to keep in check) and I said that I didn’t think so. That it depends on the motivation of the person. She said that really surprised her. I found that odd. Me of all people, should be the advocate for learning a foreign language anywhere. I do think that’s the general myth and that many language professionals and professionals in other fields do much to propagate what I see as misinformation.
March 7, 2007
Today Sydney took a tumble at the playground and busted her lip. We ended up at the emergency room waiting on a plastic surgeon to sew her up. Doctors and nurses had asked us what happened, but I wasn’t there so I couldn’t tell them and Sydney is really shy around new people and sort of clams up or gives no details, “I fell”. To me she said she fell off the slide and hit a pole. Later, when we got home, she told her dad that she fell down hard on a pinecone. The pinecone made a lot more sense because the cuts were perfect crisscrosses, like you would cross stitch, only at a diagonal. I wonder if she just didn’t remember the word for pinecone.
March 10, 2007
Today I think James didn’t understand something Stephen said to him and he responded, “Daddy, speak English.” So he’s really got that metacognition that we each speak one of the languages.
I still feel frustrated that the kids speak English together most of the time. I try to intervene but don’t want to push to the point of where they avoid being around me when they play or think that Portuguese is a hard and annoying. At dinner, Sydney was excited telling a story and the words were pouring out. She was looking at me as she told it because Stephen was busy with James. I asked her to speak in Portuguese, and she said, “I’m talking to Daddy.” So for the rest of the story she looked at Stephen even though he wasn’t paying attention, too occupied with her little brother.
I’ve been planning a class I’m teaching next month. It focuses on going from Lesson Plans to Reality. Basically how to relax and make sure students are relaxed. A factor in that lowering of motivation includes control, and ensuring that students feel a sense of ownership over their learning. That they are included in goal making, on decisions about what types of activities take place, and about what vocabulary/grammar/tasks they focus on first. And of course making sure that what’s done in class relates directly to students’ reality. That they aren’t learning superfluous or unnecessary words and grammar forms that will only distract them from learning important information in the language
I asked Bickie and Judy if they felt having some say in these areas was important to them. They both said no. Bickie said that the teacher has a tight schedule to follow that that she moves quickly from one topic to another: the alphabet, ser/estar verbs, how to greet, and such. Judy said she’s fine with letting her lead.
It made me wonder about what exactly we mean by student-centered learning. To an extent it means catering to each student’s individual needs. Making class (vocab, tasks, etc.) relevant in their present world and in the one they’ll experience in the future (in another country, working on translation, having friendships with target language native speakers).
Judy asked, “Do you mean does the teacher ask us questions in class?” I gather from that and from other “our-teacher-is-so-fun-and-interactive” comments they’ve made, that their instructor involves their lives in examples. Using “ser” with “What do you do?” for example (“I am a bank teller”)
But is this what I mean by “student-centered”. The teacher is still the all-knowing imparter of knowledge, the corrector, the initiator. Of all the years I’ve studied this concept and read academic papers on it, tried to teach my class to it’s terms and such, I’m in doubt as to what the concept even means now. I wonder if professionals in other fields have the same problem. If a psychiatrist studies depression and works with patients day after day but at some point asked, “What is this exactly? Where are the boundaries? What are the definitions beyond just a list of symptoms?” Maybe not.
March 11, 2007
Today I talked on the phone with a friend of mine who teaches Spanish in a southern university. She is so frustrated because her boss holds a dictatorship reign over the language teachers, even making the exams and keeping them sealed until test time. Most of her students are failing. Can you imagine putting your teachers in such an anxiety-ridden environment? It was just interesting because it was right after I'd written about student-centered learning and giving the students more control over the classroom goals and activities. But in her case, even the teachers don't have control. With ALL THE RESEARCH that comes from the language acquisition area, it is unforgiveable that such ignorance continues, as if it's good to be "strict" with workers. This is the same way I felt after the NECTFL conference 2006, when the papers were given by "experienced" teachers who (in my opinion) didn't know the first thing about how students learn language.
March 14, 2007
Talked to Bickie and Judy about their Spanish classes. The conversation came up because Bickie had a list of irregular verbs and wanted to quiz Judy. Judy laughed and said, "no way" as if she hadn't even begun to learn them. I quizzed Bickie and she was amazing, knew them backwards and forwards. She would recite them like: dar doy, das da, damos, dais, dan .
It's interesting because I don't teach conjugations as such at all. I start with regular verbs and the first person "I" and second/third "you/he/she/it" forms and only do the irregular verbs as they come up, and only in the person that comes up. (By person I mean again, first person, second person, ...) The conjugations in their complete form are always available in the book and some of the exercises they have to turn in use those forms and sometimes I"ll manuver the class so that they have to use "we" or "they" forms (this is especially easy because I have a married couple in the class). And then they learn some of the other forms (we/they) when they're doing their homework assignments. Their homework this week is to write a Love profile on the internet as if they're describing themselves and who they're "looking for." Should be fun because there's always some clown who exaggerates or wants odd traits from their to-be partner.
But to get back to the memorization of the verb forms, I would say the argument for that would be the same one used for memorizing the multiplication tables. That when you need them, they're already there. I just think things are so much easier to learn, when we're talking language and not math, if you learn them AS you need them.
I asked Bickie if she's still nervous to answer in class. She said yes, but that she's just that type...hates to say "here" during role call and never wants to get out of her seat during even for a bathroom break. But around us, she and Judy practice (there's one lady there who speaks Spanish and I speak a little too). I'm impressed with what they can say. Maybe I should quit being such a know it all and learn a little old school from their teacher. She sounds like a hoot!
March 1, 2007
It's starting to be a habit now, when James doesn't hear/understand something his dad says, he tells him, "Speak English." He's starting to translate for me. When Stephen says, for example, "Look a dog!" , he'll tell me "cachorro." Sydney mixes the languages so much when Stephen and I are in the room. I'm getting to where I don't correct it as much if she's looking at us both, because practically, it makes sense and it does help keep Stephen in on the conversation.
It's sort of silly how defensive I get about Portuguese-only videos. Yesterday the kids wanted to see "Tooth Fairies" which is a hand-me-down Englsih video-the only one available to them. I was so irritated that they watched it. I need to get a grip.
March 26, 2007
Today James wanted me to read an English book to him. Usually he's pretty good at picking out the Portuguese ones when I'm reading. If not Sydney tells him that no, that one's in English. Today I just sorta loosely translated to Portuguese a book in English and when we finished he said he'd get Daddy to read it to him again in English. He said the whole sentence in Portuguese except the word "English" which came out in perfect English.
We've had friends in from Australia. Actually the man is from Wales originally and his wife is Australian. Sydney asked why they talk like, "RRRRRRR". The guy from Wales was trying to do an American accent in the dialogue part of a book he was reading to the kids. It was absolutly hilarious. Funny to hear what we sound like to the Brits. (Pretty stupid, actually). It wasn't odd to speak Portuguese to Sydney around them like it often is when we're with other American friends and family. The US is such a monolingual country would be my quess as to why. Or maybe it's because these two are so well traveled.
March 27, 2007
Judy and Bickie were discussing their dissatisfaction with their last Spanish class. Apparently the teacher had missed a day which the students had used to take a more relaxed approach to learning Spanish ("slough off a bit" as Judy put it). Their actual teacher is not at all relaxed. So she came into the classroom "putting up her dukes," ready for perfection. She "teaches" certain topics such as numbers and then requires everyone to shut their books while being asked individually for the new material just gone over. Sometimes she even closes the students' books herself. Geez!
She told Bickie yesterday, "I knew you were going to mess that up!" Judy said she was right in her face: "My mouth just won't move like it's supposed to sometimes--she wants us to speak really fast or it won't be like it is in the real world, she tells us." Neither sound excited about continuing the class. "This is my time to do something fun and THIS isn't fun." Bickie feels like the teacher thinks she's at a lower level that the rest of the class (the teacher had discourged her from moving up to the next level with her classmates). "I don't feel I'm at a lower level. She likes people with a strong personality, I think, and I'm not like that."
I kept thinking, "What a way to ENCOURAGE language learning anxiety." I'd just been planning a language teaching classthat deals with how to lower anxiety so it was rather ironic to hear these women talk. Have we progressed at all in the field or are we back in the grammar translation days requiring perfection or nothing at all. How can all the research in the area of foreign language education get to those out in the trenches, working with students everyday. I doubt I'll answer that question today.
