Jennifer commented here earlier today:
…on Friday, a traditional teacher was defending two sections of a test she gave which required students to fill in the blanks for verb endings (unprovoked by me, by the way) and said, “It’s important to test those things because some kids need grammar rules….because that’s what they’re used to…”
I was bugged by her reasoning but just didn’t say anything. “Because that’s what they’re used to” is just not enough of a reason for me….
So Jennifer, Chris S. (in Canada) yesterday has provided something below that you could print out and have ready to go the next time this teacher, or anyone like her, tries to defend a defenseless position. I could just see you handing her a copy of this text and walking away to start your weekend:
Hi Ben –
So today my beginners had hwk: answer the 8 short questions for “El mono y la vaca.” One of the questions is “Por que esta enojado el mono?”
One of the beginners answered (in writing) “Esta enojado porque la vaca lo despierta”
(I dunno if u know spanish, so en francais as best as I can:
Pourquoi est-c que le singe et irrite avec la vache?
(Parce-que la vache le reveille.)
So the kid answered with a) using “despertar” conjugated properly, b) she dropped the “se” of the part they have been taught (correctly changing the verb from reflexive to transitive), AND she used a direct object pronoun of the right # and gender in the right spot.
Here’s the kicker: after 5 weeks, she has had ONLY CI and NO GRAMMAR INSTRUCTION!
I was floored. Typically even 3rd year kids could not spit out a sentence like that– they would write “porque la vaca despertarse el mono”.
Chris