Two of my students came up to me today to show a comic strip they made in Spanish on their own because they’ve been testing for the last 3 days and they missed my class! It made my day. I showed a colleague and he immediately pointed out a grammatical error-yo me gusta, instead of a mi me gusta (the truth is, native speakers often say yo me gusta even though it’s not grammatically correct.) Oh well. It made me happy anyway.
I’ve been having doubts about my students being prepared for Spanish 2 in high school, so I sat in on a Spanish 2 high school class, and I’m sitting in on another one at another high school next week. (A few of my students from last year who are taking Spanish 2 in high school have told that it’s HARD and they are working from a textbook, something they didn’t do with me.)
It was SUPER helpful to see what happens at this level. Actually, the teacher was excellent, the students were engaged most of the time. She doesn’t use TPRS exclusively, but she uses aspects of it. I feel like I need to incorporate more “grammar” into my lessons and make sure the students know how to conjugate on a T chart or they will be completely lost. Is there anyone out there who uses a combination of TPRS/CI and a more traditional approach to teaching another language?
Thanks,
Annemarie Orth