“Miss. Johnson, me encanta la clase de Ingles”
Well, there is at least one student who likes my class. I am partially flattered, because it is nice to hear “Miss” followed by my name. I am also seriously reconsidering my course objectives. Why is a student telling me, in Spanish, that he likes my English class?
There are a lot of reasons, cultural and institutional, that students are still speaking Spanish to their AP English teacher.
Culturally, it is just easier to speak a first language. I can identify with that. It is stressful for me to call a cab, negotiate a price and give directions to the gym, a place where I hope to release stress. Institutionally, the ease of Spanish has evolved as a bad habit here. The students feel they are entitled to a lot of things. And Speaking Spanish is one of them.
It takes me 5 hours to plan a 60 minute lesson, so I am not in a position to change the culture of language or get the school to kick this bad habit (these are seniors…as they so often remind me). That’s not to say that it is impossible to motivate students to speak English in a bilingual school. There are schools that do this successfully and without the classic ‘prizes or punishment’ routine. What I need to do is figure out how I am going to manage this in the classroom every day.
The students are very apologetic when I remind them that they are in English class, “Yes, Miss,” “I know, Miss” and ”I’m Sorry, Miss.” They understand the importance of fluency in English and the burden of an accent. (I let them laugh at my Spanish accent.) Now that I have had them in class for two weeks, I know they are proficient in English. Now I wonder if speaking Spanish is really a habit, or is it a choice?
To some extent, I identify with teachers in other departments. They still learn. They have meaningful discussions. They comprehend the material that is presented to them in English.
At the same time, it is very clear to me that my students are not getting the most out of their time in my classroom. They are not getting the best of me. Let’s face it, I have not mastered the crafts of lesson planning, giving directions or providing timely anecdotes. What I have mastered is conversation. And some of the best moments of teaching and learning are when students accidentally say things. Brilliant or offensive, accidents are invaluable when you recognize them and ask them to linger.
