Should we prohibit English (or their L1) in our Spanish classes? This is a topic that I have pondered for years. I have tried so many tricks to get my students to use Spanish. Honestly, some of them positive and some of them negative. But it took me forever to realize that there is a little secret to making it happen. Curious how to get your students speaking more Spanish in class? Read on!
Step 1:
Give them a task at their level. If the task is too challenging, they will resort to speaking in English because they don’t have the words they nee to communicate.
Step 2:
Give them the support they need. For example writing the vocab words on the board during the activity or having a word wall ready to go. It is ok to give them the support they need until they have acquired the word. Once they’ve seen and heard the word enough times in context, they won’t need to reference the word wall anymore.
Step 3:
Support them in building their circumlocution skills. This is my favorite game for teaching them that skill. Once they get used to talking around words in Spanish, they won’t automatically revert to English.
Step 4:
Make it fun! Use games, topics that interest them (including your students lives. Boy oh boy do they love talking about themselves), or a topic that can be debated. Even something as simple as debating what the best meal in the cafeteria is. Or the best team in the NFL. Or the best account to follow on social media. Grab their interest, and they will forget that it’s in Spanish.
If you design your lesson carefully and tailor it to their skill level, it will be easier and more enjoyable to use Spanish as opposed to defaulting to English. Have you tried this out in your class? Drop me a line on Instagram or Facebook and tell me all about it!
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