Post #5

This week, I decided to reflect back on my Spanish as a foreign language education. I began to think about the things that my teachers did that worked really well for me in developing a skill, as well as methods that did not work.
In my first year of Spanish, I had a teacher that often had us translate simple texts containing the days key vocabulary into English. Before we translated the story, we read the story out loud as a class. By having us translate texts into English, I was able to develop strategies of using context clues in order to figure out other words in a sentence that I did not know. It also helped me to retain the new vocabulary because I was able to hear it spoken out loud and read it on paper, and by translating the vocabulary, it further ingrained it into my memory.
I also had a teacher who taught us vocabulary by playing the "fly-swatter game". She would say one of our vocabulary words out loud and the students would try to be the first to swat the corresponding picture with the fly swatter. This helped us to retain vocabulary because we were having fun while reviewing key concepts.
In my phonetics and pronunciation class, throughout the semester, our professor had us complete an ongoing assignment where we recorded ourselves saying certain spanish words and phrases. We would then review our recordings and find our mistakes in pronunciation and say why it was incorrect. This was extremely helpful because it helped me to become cognizant of my pronunciation and the specific sound that each letter makes and how it is made.

On the other hand, I also had some experiences that did not work well for me. I had a teacher who taught mostly through worksheets. We would complete a worksheet individually and then go over the answers as a class. There was not much discussion or other chance to practice using the language, and the lessons were redundant and sometimes difficult to understand because the teacher offered little guidance.
I also had a teacher who taught directly from the book. Everyday, she scanned pages from the book and projected them onto the screen and read directly off of the page. She did not offer us any additional insight or means of understanding, so I found that my ability to learn to best capability was hindered.
I think that the main issue that these two teachers had was a lack of variety. They did not teach for a multitude of learning styles and did not make the lesson relatable in any way. Had they incorporated these things sometimes but used additional techniques as well, I may have been able to gain more from their classes.