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Why is the US so unsuccessful at teaching students a second language? I've been a dedicated high school Spanish teacher for over 10 years and I've had few students that ever really assimilate enough understanding of the language to carry on even a basic conversation. I generally teach Spanish I & II. Most people can read a few words or maybe write something in the language but when it comes down to brass tax, they can't actually SPEAK the language. When I've taught the advanced classes, they too are hesitant to speak the language. I generally don't punish them for not being 100% in Spanish but I do have expectations of them using the language in the classroom, and I only speak to the advanced students in Spanish (unless explaining grammar.) I use a lot of gesturing and pointing to get my ideas accross to them.

2007-03-06 16:04:46 · 7 answers · asked by Zumbagirl 2 in Society & Culture Languages

7 answers

If it's of any consolation to you, the same happens in Spanish-speaking countries with English lessons at school. We have English classes all of our school life, nevertheless, in most schools, most children don't really learn to speak it. Everybody knows some words, but most people can't really speak it.
I think in many cases it's because they didn't make us speak in English class at school (I don't know if that's the case in the US). It was just written English, and many times, just memorizing words or grammatical structures.
You just really have to try to speak it to learn a language. Even if you don't know the grammar, just working with what you have. So it helps when you are forced to listen to it and speak it, but you don't feel stupid if you make a mistake, because people are very shy to speak in a different language, even if they know what to say. That's even worse for school children who must be afraid of their classmates laughing at them.

I can tell you as an example that I had a very good French teacher in what I think would be 9th grade in the US. She never made us memorize words or translate what we were thinking in Spanish to say it in French. She made us speak using only the words we knew at that moment, but not repeating sentences, but creating sentences of our own from a given situation (She forced us to think in French, somehow). And she gave me a great basis in only one year.
I went to France ten years later and I was able to ask some things in French, just because of that teacher.

Of course, it also depends on the student. If you like languages, it's much easier for you. For some people it's really difficult. But I have learned that people say they hate a language when they feel frustrated because they feel they can't speak it. Once they have more self-confidence and learn a few things, they start to like it.

I hope it helps. Good luck!

2007-03-06 18:39:49 · answer #1 · answered by ahcgr32 2 · 1 0

Languages are a hard concept to grasp for some people, whereas other people get it instantly. (For example, you haha) In addition, languages are so different and they have different features that make them easier for certain people and harder for others. Although I'm Chinese, my Chinese is horrible because Chinese is a tonal language and I have problems with the concept of tones. However, I speak/read/write Portuguese and I can read and write in Spanish without difficulty because it just requires some simple conjugations complemented by a large enough vocabulary to say what you want. On the other hand, I have friends that have no problem with tones and as a result, Chinese is much easier than any romance language because Chinese is an analytical language and therefore has rather simple grammatical structures.

But when it all comes down to it, your brain just has to be made to learn foreign languages. Some people can do it, others can't. In fact, I bet many people in your regular Spanish classes don't even have a sufficient grasp of their own native language. I think that's an even bigger problem. I read some of my friends' essays and I wonder how people can survive without the ability to properly express themselves, even in their native language. @__@

As for your advanced classes, I suppose they're just afraid. I take Spanish 2 since I'm in grade 11 and Spanish starts in grade 10 in Canada, and although I already understand the language, I don't like speaking it because I'm afraid I'll mix Portuguese in it by accident. >__> The key is to just not care what people think, though. I'm horrible at French, but I managed to get an A in grade 9 because during oral excercises, I acted like a complete dork and put on the thickest Québecois accent ever. If you pretend you're a native speaker, it becomes easier for the words to come out. Hahaha. Tell your students that they'll get an F if they don't pretend to be Shakira or Daddy Yankee when they speak Spanish.

But I don't really understand the question. Are you asking why people find it so hard to learn languages? Or are you asking why people claim they learned Spanish in school when they actually didn't learn anything productive? Because the latter, of course, would be YOUR fault.

Hahaha, I jest. ;D

2007-03-07 00:31:51 · answer #2 · answered by Presuntinho 2 · 1 0

When I was studying French the moment the teacher crossed the door, everything was in French.

You just had to say whatever you wanted to say IN the language that was being studied. It is the only way. To be forced to use it.
If you didn´t know, well hands and feet or baby language but French.

Don´t limit yourself to speak Spanish just to the advanced students. It should be a general way of doing it.

2007-03-07 14:03:14 · answer #3 · answered by Martha P 7 · 1 0

It's because many teachers are the "textbook"-type teachers, which, in the case of Spanish or any secondary language, only teaches students how to read and write Spanish. The best way to learn a second language is to either be forced to learn it through immersion, or be motivated to learn it.

I believe the main problem lies within the cultures of the United States, creating a catch 22. Teachers oftentimes in America don't think the students actually want to learn or are devoted to learning, and thus don't put much effort into teaching (To them, teaching is meaningless if the students aren't devoted.

For example, take Japan's educational system. In their culture, they drill into the students that education is necessary to succeed, meaning that kids in Japan are often more motivated to learn because culture tells them to (as compared to the US). Teachers in Japan are also devoted to their jobs, since they know that they are teaching kids that want to do well in their class.

The end result is that although you have many people in Japan speaking English with weird or bad accents, they at least speak English compared to US students who aren't even able to speak Spanish.

In short, American culture = unmotivated students in education = less effort put in by teachers to teach = students don't speak secondary languages very well.

2007-03-07 00:20:45 · answer #4 · answered by Gazhan 1 · 1 0

I'm currently in honors spanish 3 and i understand where youre coming form. i'm not a native speaker but i understand and speak more spanish than most of the non native speakers in my class. i think it's all about the desire to want to learn the language. since spanish is required in a lot of school districts, the students are just going through the motions just to graduate. To improve my spanish i watch spanish television and half of my ipod is spanish music. You only learn what you want and need to know. your students might do the work to get good grades, but until your students are in a situation where they need spanish, they won't take it seriously.
To help this, my spanish teacher forces us to speak spanish, or at least try, to her. if we dont know a word, we ask her in spanish of course. maybe your students are just shy or afraid of sounding stupid, but if they all have to, then theyll be more comfortable and more open to trully learning it.
i hope my student's point of view helped you.

2007-03-07 01:40:02 · answer #5 · answered by b2k4ever08 4 · 1 0

because they dont learn how to speak it. speaking is a skill that they need to practice for daily and on regular basis to be able to speak fluently. but in schools they study grammar, reading, may be some writing and listening but they dont study or practice speaking ( the students not the teacher) we all know the teacher can do it..

2007-03-07 01:42:19 · answer #6 · answered by DD 2 · 0 0

i dont know
actually im surprised
spanish its not such a difficult language.i learned it without teacher in less than an year.
at school we studied french,and after just one year,most of the students in my class cud carry a conversation,and french is harder to learn than spanish.

2007-03-07 01:16:31 · answer #7 · answered by kalliste 3 · 0 1

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