Job Discussion Forums

[esl_prof]

[lagringalindissima]

I am a Spanish teacher in the USA. Teachers are in fact embracing "teach Spanish in Spanish" now..it's not working out too well. When I student taught I was with a K-6 teacher so we only saw students once a week; we used all Spanish. My teacher asked the same questions in every class..one was "What day (meaning of the week) is today?" Once I missed a Tuesday class and made it up on Friday. I broke the no English rule to remind them this answer is different and I got weird looks. When I did a happy dance and said "Hoy es viernes.. yeah!" kids asked me why I was doing that. It turns out they had never understood what any of us were saying. Once I tried to show what "I don't like.." means by looking at a book and saying YUCK!.. they'd say BOOK. No.. I'd find any object in the room and actively dislike it; they never guessed what I was trying to communicate. These were kids..teens would be less amused and less patient if I taught that way.

TPR/TPRS is a new thing..it was in its infancy in the 1990s and is now common in K-12 classrooms. Students don't learn grammar well via TPR/S. That's just a fact. Even people who use and love the method say a disadvantage of it is "grammar is a mess for up to 3 years.."-- and how many American high schoolers take 4 years of a foreign language? (Those who do are atypical..they are either more motivated to learn a new language than most of their peers and/or they get to use the target language outside of class more than their peers.)

I taught at Berlitz. Admittedly my classes with Japanese students (this was the USA) usually went fine. (Although at times they didn't! We once spent a close to whole hour on one word because my student couldn't grasp what apparently meant.) But these were private classes with an upper intermediate student who lived in the USA and a had good job here; classes of Latin American teenagers with a very low level of English are not the equivalent. We never taught beginning English at our center, but the beginning classes of foreign languages were awful; we had a model in Russian and I barely made it to break time before vomiting from stress!


TPRS was supposedly created to "do immersion the right way" because the audio-lingual method Berlitz uses doesn't work, but TPRS is only slightly better. The big "paradigm shift" from the audio lingual method to TPRS is that TPRS lets you listen before talking-- so doesn't make you try to say "thisisapen" at a natural speed right away. Students are a bit less overwhelmed, but learning isn't enhanced. Since "output" is discouraged and tests are "output based"--i.e. the students have to use the language themselves-- I believe teachers using this method over estimate what their students really know/understand.

If you observed my beginning classes you'd hear a lot of Spanish--or English if I am teaching Spanish-- from both me and the students. What you would not see is me teaching as if I was teaching math and we were solving equations. You might see us playing games.. I like to put candy everywhere and have the students tell me where it is. Or maybe students would have 10 minutes to interview each other about their families (How many sibling do you have? How many aunts?) and then have students tell us about their partner ("Jesus has 2 sisters and a brother.."). If we are learning about American schools, you might hear me telling them about our grading system (90-100 or "9-10 for you" (since most countries grade from 0-10 and students get an 8.3 or whatever on their report card) is an A.. less than 60/6 out of 10 is an F) in Spanish.

This works for me. English only for non immersed beginners would not. So what do I do about my students who speak Japanese and thus can't be told what "used to=imperfect"? I chose not to go to Japan--problem solved .

I don't have any problem with people coming to Latin America to teach/learn Spanish with limited Spanish-- and in fact I concede that if advanced students have a teacher who's not fully fluent in Spanish it can be helpful to them. But if you are going to tell me my students aren't learning anything and I suck as a teacher/should be fired, just keep this tidbit in mind..chances are that I helped at least some your students (with Spanish) and you don't know that. If a bilingual teacher at your school didn't help your students, odds are very high that someone who knows more English than they do helped at least some of them--and in Spanish.

You might also be interested in my student evaluations.
"It was an amazing class..you taught us a lot and it was enjoyable to have you as a teacher".

"This is the English class I have understood the best and thus I was able to make my first 20/20 in English.. and you are a good teacher, because you understand us and can explain things well".

"I think I learned a lot and the class helped me a lot in school..because last year English was very hard for me and now it's not; on the contrary, I like it.."

[esl_prof]

Thanks for your candor in sharing your personal experience with these methodologies, Gringa! This really helps to put a lot of your previous comments in perspective. While I still lean towards trying to avoid use of the L1 in my classroom, I have much greater respect for those who have tried and failed in what sounds like less than optimal teaching conditions. One of the issues that we all struggle with (or at least I hope we do) is the reconciling the discrepancy between theory and practice.

Best wishes in your ongoing teaching endeavors!

[lagringalindissima]

That's all .

[esl_prof]

[nomad soul]

Hola!

Just out of curiosity, has the exodus of transplants and retired, English-speaking expats from colder climes seeking the warmth of Central America impacted the region's TEFL market in any way?

[Rose Cohen]

[nomad soul]

I noticed the trend from watching HGTV's "House Hunters International." Not counting Canadians, a good number of Americans apparently have made the following countries in the region their home: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama (source: http://vivatropical.com/nicaragua/where-expats-live-in-central-america/ ). Ditto for Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. They represent retirees, business owners, and families returning to their roots.

[lagringalindissima]

No, it is not easy to get a job--especially if you want a living wage and/or you don't speak Spanish. Overseas hires are very rare. I don't believe the rumor floating around that "schools that advertise for foreign teachers only do so because they are unable to fill the jobs locally-- because the working conditions suck!", but it is definitely true that there are few jobs to choose from if you want a job prior to going.. and you do. Yes some people do get decent jobs by moving to their country of choice and door knocking, but that is far from guaranteed.

As for safe, it's a huge region so of course it varies depending on where you are.

Keep in mind that to be safe in Latin America--other than in very very rural areas--you absolutely must live in a safe neighborhood. Not all jobs pay enough for you to do that. Also: many jobs have late night shifts (i.e. you work 8-10 am and 5-10 pm); for jobs like that you need to ensure you can safely get home from the school's location.

I have never felt unsafe walking around anywhere in Latin America--other than one scary Mexican neighborhood-- alone during daylight hours, and I am female. In many places even walking around alone at night is fine. But is not safe to just jump on a plane and move there without a job.

Just to answer the question .

[MotherF]