In the past few years I’ve attended several conferences for foreign language and as a result I am striving to teach for proficiency. In a very positive way, it has caused me to really rethink how I’m teaching and assessing my students. I’ve moved towards using authentic resources in the classroom and challenging students to actually be able to use the language in a meaningful way. The results have been nothing short of wonderful and encouraging because my students are feeling confident in expressing themselves in Spanish!
One of my biggest hurdles has been achieving the goal of using 90% target language in the classroom. It’s one thing for me to speak in Spanish all the time, but the challenge becomes how to get the students to speak to one another in Spanish as well. I hate having to police them, constantly tell them to speak in Spanish, and feeling like I’m always the bad guy.
Part of overcoming this hurdle has been using activities that require the students to stay in the target language such as my “tres veces” game which is based on circumlocution. But what about all the in-between time? The 5-minute passing period when they first walk into the classroom and chat about what they did over the weekend? How do you encourage them to use Spanish in those moments?
Solution: EL EXPERTO Y EL ZORILLO
This is a strategy I use to encourage students to speak only in the target language and keeping one another accountable.
I start by explaining my expectations for speaking in Spanish. As soon as they pass through the door, they have entered a Spanish world where they will only use Spanish to communicate. Our goal is to create an immersion like experience. They should speak to me in the target language, but more importantly to one other. So in the five minute passing period when they’re complaining about homework, discussing weekend plans, etc, it will be all in Spanish.
At the start of every class, I ask for a volunteer to be the “experto.” There are two rules they have to follow: 1. Speak only in Spanish and 2. looking up any words anyone in the class needs to know. This way, the student gets to feel special, it creates a positive role, and they can rely on each other for words as opposed to me (I’m not a walking dictionary). The experto gets to wear the badge for that class period.
At the end of the period, the experto earns a positive point. You can decide how to count this point: a homework pass, participation grade, etc.
To help students self monitor, I also use the “zorillo.” I print out a picture of a skunk, laminate it, and if students are speaking in English, I give them the zorillo. However, if they hear a classmate speaking in English, they pass them the zorillo. This helps them to keep one another accountable and me from being the English police. At the end of the period, whoever has the zorillo gets a “negative point.” Again, you can decide how to count these points. In my class, they can balance these negative points by volunteering to be the experto in a following class.
This has been my secret to success to getting my students speaking in Spanish consistently. I started in my Spanish 4 class without a problem. Last year I decided to try it out with my Spanish 2 class starting in second quarter. Guess what? It totally worked! Of course their ability to express themselves is more limited, but I was blown away with how well they were able to communicate in Spanish. By the end of the year, I could have fairly fluent conversations with me, they could make jokes in Spanish, and weren’t afraid to take risks using Spanish.
For more ways to encourage your students to speak in Spanish, check out these activities:
Conversation starters for Spanish 1
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