Happy teachers = Happy students
As simple as this sounds, being happy and maintaining a positive outlook on your foreign language class can often be challenging as foreign language study is 'scary' for many students, especially adolescents. Research shows that teachers who exhibit energy, enthusiasm, and positivity on a regular basis create a learning environment in which student performance increases! Students, however must meet the teacher halfway! Here's how:
Classroom Strategy for Students:
Don’t dread it! It’s only an hour of your life – you can do it!
Enter with a POSITIVE attitude and smile.
Greet your teacher - Buenos días! Hola!
If you don’t know what’s being asked of you – Respond with:
- No comprendo.
- No sé.
- Repite, por favor.
Remember, shrugging your shoulders and/or not responding sends the wrong message to your teacher. A message that you don't care or you're not interested.
Reading Strategy:
ALWAYS Focus on what you know!
Read the title, look at pictures and picture captions. Find the English key (if it exist).
Read with the intent of comprehension – meaning, don’t waste time pondering over what you don't know!
Get the gist of what you have read and keep moving forward with it.
Don’t waste time with your face in a dictionary to look up words you don’t know (especially words that do not impede your whole understanding.)
If words you don’t know do impede your overall comprehension – only then should you use the glossary, dictionary, or ask your teacher "Cómo se dice …?"
Vocabulary Strategy:
Categorize your vocab words by making associations & connections, and learn them in this manner. You can categorize by parts of speech, word families, or by relationship.
Have a parent, friend, or sibling call the English out and you give the Spanish.
Make flashcards for words you struggle to remember (not for words you already know or can figure out by easily.)
Rewrite your words; use them in a sentence; say them out loud when reviewing.
Overall Strategy:
ASK for help when you are confused. Don’t wait until test time.
DON’T second-guess yourself. Be confident in you!
Always focus on what you DO know.
STAY AWAY from translation sites – they are not for you!
Stay out of the dictionary if you can help it!
Q&A Strategy:
Don’t answer a question with a question word - You must omit the interrogative when answering a question!
This seems like a given, but you'd be surprised.
When answering third party questions, often you can answer with SAME verb. I call this A,B,C strategy where A = the subject, B = the same verb used in the original Q & C = the answer to the Q.
Ex. ?Cuál es la fecha? La fecha es … Just go “backwards” to answer using the same article/noun/verb combination given in the Q. This is a simple trick to help put the student on the right track, and may not work 100% of the time, but at least it's a starting point!
This won't work when answering second person (tú) questions, because then, of course, you must answer using first person (yo).
