input during the methods class. Input is any information, in writing, orally, or otherwise,
in the target language that could be understood or useful to the student.
The biggest mistake I made with this lesson plan was that I created it for two
periods; in other words, it would last for two days before we began the summative
assessment. There are many aspects of this that proved problematic once I actually taught
the lessons. After the first day, I already knew I had incorrectly estimated the time. We
had only gone through the first half of the first lesson! The students’ nerves were
palpable and they became visually distressed when they heard the words “speaking
practice” or “mid-year benchmark.” I reminisced on the early stages of my Spanish
development and remembered feeling the same exact way. In my experiences, it seems
speaking is the almost always the last skill, out of reading, writing, listening, and
speaking, for non-native speakers to develop and produce with confidence. This is due to
many factors including the heightened affective filter during oral production and the fact
that it’s often the least practiced in classrooms. Despite the rise in a focus on
communicative proficiency, which most likely stems from the rise of the approach of
Communicative Language Teaching, the reality is that many classes are giving minimal
preparation and practice of spontaneous speech, pronunciation, and other skills associated
with oral production.
Seeing the stress in my students and hearing their audible groans, I was quickly
reminded of this gap between the frequency of practicing oral exams and the value it has
in real-world contexts. I do feel that the students underestimate their ability; they speak in
Spanish quite often during our class activities. Nonetheless, the rigor of this task lies in
the length, fluidity, and cohesion of a conversation. During class activities, students
generally produce one to two sentences at a time. Occasionally, there will be follow-up
questions or prompts directed by the teacher that will turn their participation more
conversational. In these cases, their follow-up answers tend to have less grammatical
accuracy and a slower place than their original contribution. This is a sign that they had
been preparing their original answer beforehand, not spontaneously, a habit that is
common amongst this level. With this realization that they struggle with spontaneous
production and have had limited practice, it makes sense that they would need more than
two class periods to prepare. I should have allotted three periods for preparation and I
should have designed one activity focused on stress-reduction. Before other tasks, we
have had more formal and planned ways to reduce stress and boost confidence, but my
lesson lacked this important piece.
Today I received one of the hardest criticisms from my host teacher. I was doing
the introduction for the day. It is a time allotted to allow students to speak on a topic of
their choice, usually what they did the night before or what they are looking forward to in
the upcoming week. During this time, I call on students on a volunteer basis to share in
the target language, Spanish. A common issue is that students will want to share without
speaking in Spanish. The issue today was with my reaction to this matter and how my
reaction differed by student. One of the hardest things to do coming into this profession is
to recognize one’s own biases. These prejudices permeate the classroom, no matter how
minor or subconscious they are. I found myself acting on such biases rather than relying
on my training and more open mind. Kyla and David had both attempted to share in
English, and I politely said, “Try in Spanish.” Zach was next. He is a student with an IEP
that classifies him on the autism scale. I called on his raised hand. He asked, “I don’t