Why don't language classes in the U.S. teach fluency?
I took Spanish classes in school and was never even taught the subjunctive, or even taught that it existed.
We were very rarely speaking the language in class. Most of the class was books, papers, reading, and writing.
I should consider it a small miracle that I can say anything in Spanish at all.
Why are language classes in the U.S. so crappy? Why do they not seem to care if students achieve fluency? I just got the feeling that my teachers didn't give a crap if I ever got fluent (and lo and behold, I'm not).
Why are classes taught in this manner?
Btw, on an unrelated note, got Spanish spoken to me twice at work yesterday. Busy holiday season, stressed out people equals more Spanish spoken to me when I don't want it spoken to me. sigh Half black half white problems I guess, but it's frustrating.
(I share these anecdotes because mixed black/white people in the U.S. have a unique and frustrating perspective when it comes to our desire to learn Spanish or not learn it. There are countless stories of people of my ethnic background being approached again and again with the expectation that we speak Spanish--no offense to anyone, it's just draining. For me it happens weekly if not daily and it's emotionally and mentally exhausting.)
6 Answers
My first experience with Spanish was with high school classes. Three years, and at the end I couldn't order a glass of water. That was a long time ago, but the experience was pretty much as you describe.
I don't know if this is still the case, but I suspect it is. If we taught Spanish in the same way we teach ESL classes, with language immersion from day one, I believe we would have better results.
Bueno, perdonad si opino sin saber pero yo como Español obviamente he dado clases de Ingles desde que tenía 6 años, y aun así creo que aquí tampoco damos un nivel suficiente, he tenido compañeros en el instituto que apenas entendían palabras muy simples del Ingles, creo que es un problema de todos los países con los idiomas extranjeros. Pero en mi opinión también pienso (quizás erróneamente) que en Inglaterra y USA al hablar ya el idioma oficial en todo el mundo no se le pone mucho empeño a aprender otro ya que con vuestro idioma natal podéis ir a cualquier parte del mundo.
High School language classes are the same anywhere. Here in Brazil we have English since kindergarten but usually it does not go beyonf the verb to be. Well, if someone wants to learn a language, it is better to do it by oneself. I learned English by myself, I'm learning Spanish now at college, which is far better, but it still has its difficulties. If you really want to learn Spanish, put your mind to it and you're going to it.
I have a step son that has mixed heritage, Cuban mom, English dad. He taught high school Spanish for a couple of years and is now off to medical school (way to go Jake!). I'm not sure why he didn’t learn Spanish as a child (fluent mom), but as a teen it was something he wanted to do, so he did one year in college in Argentina just to learn Spanish. I also have a daughter that has a Mexican mom and a dad who is, hmmm, let's see, English, Hungarian, French, Sioux Indian, and who knows what else : ) Remember, the USA is a country of immigrants.
People are usually surprised when my daughter starts speaking in near perfect Spanish. Yes, she uses the subjunctive occasionally even though she doesn't know she is doing it. Thing is, the subjunctive doesn't come up that much and you would still be perfectly understood even if you never used one subjunctive word. This is a learning oriented site. That is why it is discussed so much here.
My daughter couldn’t care less about what other people think about her language abilities, or anything else for that matter...: ) But I suppose that's just her personality. You should feel good about who you are. Being multicultural is a gift and it doesn’t matter what other people think or assume. Simply say "No hablo español pero quiero aprender" .
You received an overwhelming response to your last post. So many people who empathized and were willing to help. You're articulate, and write well, so put your talents to good use and start learning, if that's what you really want to do. Neox has made a good point. We are in a country where a second language is not entirely necessary to function well. So in school it's kind of like algebra, most people take the class, but few actually retain what they learned.
I guess that happens everywhere in the world....Academic learning of a language is encouraged and to me that's totally against really learning the language like when we were a kid.
I have the rare experience of a high school that had a fantastic foreign language department. Our teachers subscribe to the Total Physical Response model from James Asher and Stephen Krashen's theory of comprehensible input (plus a heavy dose of grammar and writing). We talked all the time, acted things out, sang songs, READ leveled books (like back in lower elementary in our first language!), and were in an environment that fostered acquisition of the language, as opposed to just learning rules of the language.
One reason it's not so widespread to have interactive, fluency-driven classes is probably because it's so much easier to follow the prescribed pattern of vocab lists and conjugations. It's way easier to assign grades to your students if there is an easily measurable assessment you can hand them on grammar and vocab.
Don't get me wrong, I work in a bilingual school, and it's draining to come up with alternatives to teaching language. It's just, plain difficult, as well, to keep talking to someone in a second language when you both share a common first language. Teachers are doing a wonderful job. But I feel we've got lots of room for improvement in language teaching.
