Oh, how I miss teaching novices! I teach next door to the Spanish 1, 2, and 3 teacher, with a divider separating our basement rooms, and every time I hear her with her Spanish 1 students I long to be in there – not because she’s really doing anything wrong, but because I love teaching novices so much. I enjoy interacting with teachers of novices every chance I get. As I meet and engage in conversation with teachers of novices, both in person and online, I have encountered what I believe are the three most common mistakes teachers of novices make.
Teaching too much grammar
It’s so easy for language teachers to fall into this. We love to pick apart the words into their individual changeable parts but we are not doing beginners any favors by encouraging them to think about language rather than use it. Let me just say that our goal with novices is not accuracy. It’s NOT ACCURACY. It’s not accuracy. You may think it’s important for your novices to be manipulating feminine and masculine (and calling them that) but 1) those labels don’t make any sense and 2) only students who have a high linguistic aptitude (such as recognizing and duplicating patterns easily) will benefit. The others will be lost.
So what is our goal? If I could boil my goal for novices down to one phrase it would be communicating while creating with language. So, some degree of accuracy is needed but only insofar as it prevents miscommunication. The big thing that makes novices novices is that they can’t really create with language. They can communicate with memorized chunks of language but aren’t adept at moving those chunks into different situations or separating them into communicative parts to use as tools in other sentences. I want my novices to get to a place where they can do that – because then they’re moving into intermediate. And then we can think more about accuracy.
What does this mean in the classroom? For me, it means put away the conjugation charts. And the word conjugation for that matter. I’ve recently seen a flurry of teachers recommending this mnemonic or that video or this resource for teaching the conjugation of this or the reflexive that. Oh, if we could just put aside all the pet grammatical labels, all the charts, all the stupid YouTube videos with grammar rules set to modern pop music and just let kids communicate. Then we’d be doing something about proficiency!
Not enough target language
We all know that ACTFL recommends levels of at least 90% target language or more, but there is still way too much English in the classroom. I’m wagging my finger at myself here. The last two years, okay, I was pregnant, I was tired, I have excuses why I didn’t put the brain power in to speaking enough Spanish in the classroom. I started strong and then it was too easy to let a meaningful discussion turn the class into an English zone or to tell myself I was just too tired to get the Spanish comprehensible and out there, but really, there’s no excuse. Because we know that when we don’t speak the target language at comprehensible levels, students aren’t acquiring it.
How many teachers react to the TL recommendations makes me think a lot of teachers think it’s harder to stay in the TL at novice levels than intermediate. (As I write this, I have an email open in another tab from a teacher asking this very question.) But I think it’s the other way around. My intermediates want to push so much into areas they can’t do linguistically; it’s much harder for me there to stay in the TL. Novices, on the other hand, need so much routine, scaffolding, negotiation, etc. that I think it’s much easier to stay in the TL with them. For lots of tips on getting more TL in the classroom, see my posts on increasing teacher TL and increasing student TL, as well as the #langchat summaries of chats on this topic:
- Strategies for staying in the target language with beginners
- Increase your students’ use of target language in the classroom
- Target language from day 1: How to keep high levels of TL in your class
- Maximizing target language use in the classroom
- Ways to inspire conversation in the target language
Too much group work
I love group work. One of my favorite things to say is that collaboration isn’t cheating, it’s the 21st-Century skill. But with some teachers, and some methods (it’s a problem with project-based or problem-based learning especially), we’re incorporating large amounts of collaborative learning in a classroom where students aren’t capable of it. Students need to be working with someone who can truly scaffold with them, and as novices, their classmates aren’t it. Their classmates can’t make the input accurate and comprehensible at the same time. When I’m teaching novices, I include group collaborative work perhaps 10% of the time, and it usually looks like partner or class surveys (what’s your favorite soda? his favorite soda is Coke, and my favorite soda is Coke, our favorite soda is Coke, etc.).
Do you agree? What mistakes do you think hinder the novice classroom and how are you fixing them?
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I like to use specific engagement strategies to help them- such as, 1,2,3 va- for 1,2,3, go when we are starting some sort of an activity. We have body gestures that go with to help them physically activate and start right away.
Great comment – thanks for suggesting that strategy!
1,2,3-VE
I politely correct that 😉
Or could be váyanse 😉 I prefer “ya” because of how much I use “en sus marcas, listos, ya”
I struggle with all three things, and mostly with 7th and 8th graders because I know I have to get them ready for high school and their style of teaching (grammar, by the book, conjugation charts, workbooks, etc.) And because I teach in a very linguistically diverse school, too. My kids struggle with (any) language.
Conversely, with grades 4, 5 and 6, my job is so much easier. At least with grades 4-5, I feel like I still have fun and just stay 90% in TL. I don’t talk about grammar. It’s almost 100% communicative, meaning apply the vocabulary instantly, like in a 25 minute period 1x week! 🙂 I keep it light and straight forward. We don’t use a book.
It’s really like I have two totally different jobs.
Am I doing the older students a disservice if I never mention the words conjugate, subject pronoun, infinitive, etc.? In part, yes, because for most of my students, Spanish is their third or fourth language, and they need to reinforce grammar concepts in English. I think looking at one’s population is essential. I can make TL 90% as my goal with the older students, but the reality is, there will be some days, I am looking at my students and their linguistic needs in English and Spanish and will teach the language of learning a language. I don’t feel like I’m just a Spanish teacher, but a language teacher.
In any case, I struggle with this every day.
Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for sharing your struggle, Lola. Different groupings and mixes of kids definitely can throw a wrench in the most perfect plans. It’s a great discussion to continue to think about how we can compensate.
No.
Is all of kindergarten about getting ready for first grade? And all of first grade about getting ready for second, and so on? When do we do what we should be doing at any given time, if all we are thinking about is the next step? Let the high school teacher teach the high school stuff. If grammar labeling is truly part of your high school curriculum — which it very well may not be, if a closer look is taken. The ACTFL standards certainly never mention it.
Teach for June — of your year. Not someone else’s. If you give them kids who can understand and speak Spanish, it’s easy to teach a few labels for the grammar later on. It’s very difficult to make a labeller speak fluently if he doesn’t in the first place.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on teaching Novice students. Your post is perfect timing. I was just (a few hours ago) talking to a newer Level I teacher about the amount of Target Language we should aim to use in our classes and the role of grammar instruction with Level 1 students. He is still of the believe that his students need the specific grammar instruction to move forward. He did say, however, he wasn’t hitting the 90% TL target and blames much of his English use on grammar instruction. Yes, the easiest way to increase the percentage is to use the language with the students. I, too, find it harder to stay in complete Spanish with my upper level students. They are creating more with the language and are desiring more linguistic flexibility which they often lack. Level 1 is quite scripted so it makes it easier. Slowing down and teaching less in Novice is also more helpful, I have found.
We didn’t address group work but I think it’s a problem at all levels. This is also tricky because many principals and even consultants will tell you that students need to work in groups to “practice” the language.
I have set many a group up for failure requiring a certain task or activity were students did not have the language proficiency to complete the lesson. Surveys, like a human bingo, reading, mini dialogs (3-4 total lines) from novels and creating/retelling simple stories have been successful when I’m aiming for some quality partner work.
Those are great ideas. You are spot on with “Slowing down and teaching less in Novice is also more helpful.” Perhaps I should have made this 4 mistakes and added “too much content.” I used to pride myself that students had navigated through present and both simple past tenses before the end of Spanish 1 – and couldn’t do much with any of it. What a waste of class!
I have many advanced students who are extremely conversant, but make many errors. They are unmotivated to improve their proficiency because they have reached a proficiency that is good enough to be understood. I believe that part of the scaffolding includes some chug and plug activities which help students acquire language is useful. I scaffold the use of language by giving them the language that they need (comprehensible oral input and processing through writing), and let them process it and then use it. I do not *teach* grammar, that is, I do not give grammar lessons or lectures. By flipping the classroom students can do this on their own and then come to class ready to use the language.
That is a common problem among more advanced students, I agree. What are “chug and plug” activities?
One way I attack these patterns of errors is to question students when they use them. I can’t be doing it constantly or I’ll interrupt their flow and discourage them, but with more advanced students I’m doing it a lot. For example, I have a couple who persistently drop verbs or do nothing with them:
S: “El lunes yo y mi amiga Karen ir a…”
Me: “Ir? Yo y Karen ir? Inténtalo otra vez.”
S: “fui?”
Me: Yo fui. Yo y Karen, nosotras…”
S: “fuimos, fuimos al restaurante…”
“Intentalo otra vez” is a phrase I use a whole lot. I have one student who tends to put a sh sound on -ción endings. She hears “inténtalo otra vez” a lot. 😉
OK, amiga mía, I’m going to have to disagree with you on a few points, here, but first the agreement.
1) Indeed, accuracy is not the point.
HOWEVER, I think we ARE doing a service by encouraging them to think ABOUT language. Not exclusively, mind you, but to help file new information, build semantic connections to prior knowledge. And I do like your labels better, but categorizing new information is always useful.
2) Communication is, indeed, the point.
HOWEVER, can one really call parroting pre-set scripts over and over communication? I think they need to practice rearranging chunks from the get-go and adapting to their context.
3) Agree WHOLEHEARTEDLY with the scaffolding for novices.
HOWEVER, if novices aren’t pushing into language they don’t know yet, exactly how engaging can the topic be?
On group work…I cannot agree AT ALL. Studies show (I’d have to dig up the ol’ textbook to find which ones) that there is NO DIFFERENCE between students getting “accurate” input from teachers and “inaccurate” input from classmates in developing their listening/interpersonal skills. As you said, the accuracy of the language is NOT the point at the novice level. Furthermore, as you said, scaffolding and routines can solve a lot of those problems. Mind you, I’m still pretty lazy about 90% and not nearly enough of a disciplinarian to get absolute adherence to my expectations in any facet of the classroom experience, really. BUT with routine questions and discussion patterns to develop the projects, I see no reason that collaboration should be anything but an asset to the teacher of novices.
…this may have to become its own post…
What a thought-provoking disagreement. 🙂 Always fun to think about whether and why we disagree on things.
From an SLA perspective, I think we never do students a service by encouraging them to think about language. Not at all. Unfortunately, we have no choice. CI Krashenites (and I count myself in that camp whole-heartedly) who think we can treat kids who speak English as if they were babies who didn’t speak a language (I do not count myself in that camp) are deluding themselves. The fact is students have metacognitive knowledge and we can’t ignore it. The best we can do is to channel it, which I suppose is what you mean by encouraging them to think about language. My opinion, though, is that only students with high linguistic aptitude will benefit from this at all. In that case, for example, a student who readily identifies and imitates patterns will benefit from us pointing out the pattern, but it is still only communicative work with the pattern that will internalize it. They can’t internalize the language by thinking about it. There are some researchers who think the two are stored as completely different things, that even people who think they learned via grammar explanations actually later internalized language and then knew it, and then just assumed it came from what they started with. Think about it – we all have had those kids that we think “I’ve told her a million times the yo form ends in o, why is she still using yo hablar?!”
Parroting language chunks is communication if it’s used to communicate. But it’s novice communication. Of course we want students to practice manipulating those chunks from the start – because that’s what will push them into intermediate. The problem here is we think about students at all proficiency levels the same. We don’t think okay, this won’t work with novices, but it will work with intermediates, and we assume that about everything we read – “oh wait, but my students can…” – yes, when they’re intermediates. But not novices. And this is my thing with collaborative learning. I’d love to see the research you’re talking about. Language acquisition research shows that the only thing that resets faulty morphemes (as in, a child saying I goed) is abundant correct input (not correction). Children acquire the language they’re exposed to. I can’t imagine how anyone would argue that exposing students to abundant amounts of inaccurate novice language will do them as much acquisition good as guiding their work with abundant amounts of accurate native or near-native language. This whole argument is why we’ve produced generations of people who say they took two years and can say hola and taco – we sat them through 2 years of English explanations and collaborative work with other novices.
Here’s my thing on the “yo hablar” issue: if we never draw attention to WHAT they’re doing wrong, then how can they correct it? It’s like in my English classes, with these widely read kids who put commas all over the place, leave off apostrophes, and say weird things like “should of known.” They’ve seen AND heard these constructions zillions of times, but if no one points out how they work, they can’t/don’t imitate it accurately.
I swear I’ll dig the textbook out, if I can get out from under some of this grading!
Your English class example is a high-proficiency orthographic literacy skill. You have to remember I’m not talking all-or-nothing here (please don’t think I mean “never”!). I’m talking novices. Our goal with novices simply isn’t accuracy, and it sure isn’t orthographic accuracy. It’s not helpful and most of them aren’t terribly capable of it. The issue is not whether we draw attention to errors – it’s when and how. With novices, it’s usually a waste of time.
Well said, Laura. We correct our own children if they pronounce incorrectly a word/ phrase. We would not accept from our child to say: “The book is mines not . . .” We would correct our own child, telling them no it is pronounced: “The book is mine not…””why not correct students too. That is how you learn, you make mistakes then have to be corrected, with enough language practice, eventually you self-correct. Similar to math. Language builds upon itself, but still needs direction from a foreign language teacher/ or a native speaker. If in another country those countrymen will correct you too. No one’s feelings would be hurt. Students want to be able to use the language effectively too. As teachers, we all just need to find a balance don’t overemphasize one aspect of language (be it grammar, speaking, writing, listening. . .etc ) without addressing all in an interactive way that helps create a well balanced student.
After a certain skill level is achieved, it seems that correction does do some good, but most studies are confusing at best or leaning toward there’s no evidence children or novice learners reset to the correct form based on teacher or parent correction.
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This came at the right time. I am actually finding it really challenging to teach Spanish 1 this year, which is the first time in a while, usually I really love teaching first year Spanish, and I can sense the pacing and what to do with them to help them learn, but this year is a little different. Something isn’t quite clicking in these two classes. It is probably good that it is challenge, but some days are just super frustrating! My upper level classes are pretty wonderful, we are using stories and the students reply back in Spanish- and the classes seem to flow better. Partly I think it is that we have a big mix of kids, some who have challenges in reading/writing English and several who have IEP’s/ Sometimes I think that it is the fact that teaching Spanish 1 on a block schedule isn’t ideal- we have the kids 3 times a week for 90 minute periods- which means that we can do a certain amount of input in a day and then have to split up for group work or something to switch it up- but the students just don’t have the language skills yet to do all that much on their own and they need the daily repetition. Hmmm. I am wondering what your thoughts are on block scheduling? Have you ever done block scheduling with novice learners?
Hi! I thoroughly enjoy your blog.
In reading previous blog entries here, I understand that you no longer give vocabulary quizzes. Do you follow a similar philosophy regarding grammar quizzes as well?
Yes, I do not give grammar quizzes. My quizzing philosophy in a nutshell: 1) they’re never announced, 2) all the questions and answers communicate meaning and 3) they most often relate to comprehension of print or audio sources.
Hope this helps – I think I should blog this soon.
Thank you for answering my question so succinctly. And, I look forward to reading your blog post on the subject, hopefully in the near future. 🙂
[…] year I blogged a post about the top 3 mistakes teachers of novices make. It made a big splash, in the cyber world anyway. Something about that post resonated with […]