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Reflections of a language learner #1

I've recently started attending a Spanish class once a week. It's pitched at pre-intermediate level, which seems fine for me, although I'm a bit of a 'level-freak' really. I've decided to write some thoughts on my experiences of going back into a language class. I'm hoping to keep up with writing a post after each of my weekly classes, but let's see how it goes. (Since writing this I've had two further classes, so I'm already behind schedule!) I'm planning to comment about my feelings towards learning and also towards what the teacher is doing. I'm going to try to write the pieces more or less like a journal, without editing, so I may be forming thoughts and opinions as I write.

A bit of background

I spent the best part of two years in Spain between 2008 and 2010. I spent all of this time in Andalucia, which is renowned for rapid, slangy (some might say sloppy) speech. I didn't have any formal lessons really, but had a brief one to one class with a non-native (Scottish) part-time teacher/ translator and a bit of help from an American friend. I learnt most things from the Rough Guide phrasebook and interaction with friends, both Spanish and 'guiri' (foreigners in Spain). I have a strong knowledge of lexis, single words and phrases - particularly common interactional stuff that I've picked up. I have decent listening ability but have not really practised reading much, can't write for toffee and really, REALLY get annoyed trying to learn verb conjugations!

I live in Manchester with my Spanish girlfriend, who I can practise with, but rarely do, to be honest - meaning that we speak English, not that we don't speak! We often converse in both languages, I in English and she in Spanish, or in our own version of Spanglish. I often use short Spanish phrases in everyday communication without really thinking about it.

The first class

Our teacher spoke in English. She introduced herself and admitted that she is not a trained teacher but a student with a lot of language learning experience (this was expected as these are cheap classes with volunteer teachers organised by a University society). She is native to Galicia and can speak four or five languages herself.

She explained that she thought it would be best to use a mixture of English and Spanish in the lessons, explaining that for any grammar explanations, it would be better to use English as that is the common language of the course participants. I'm not sure yet whether I have a problem with this. As she's inexperienced, perhaps she'd have difficulty presenting grammar in Spanish. However, will going over these things in English just allow student laziness to kick in? In actual fact, with my monolingual classes, I don't have a problem in my classes with lower level students discussing language points in their L1, as long as they speak in English at other times when they are instructed to. I shall monitor and reflect on this situation.

As for the students in the class, there were two Chinese students, a Polish student and me - they're all undergraduates and made me feel quite old! The Chinese are male and female and the Polish student is female, so there's a gender balance. The Polish student seemed quite confident and spoke well in Spanish, but the Chinese students were clearly not comfortable when asked to speak - in fact, come to think of it, this was true of them speaking in English, never mind Spanish.

The teacher seemed to have some considered ideas about how to go about teaching a first class. Following a brief activity in which we all had to introduce ourselves (in Spanish), she proceeded to carry out a basic needs analysis, involving a diagnostic test followed by a discussion of activities we'd like to do in class and also what skills we would prefer to focus on. The results of the diagnostic will be available in next week's class.

Some things I noticed and reflected on after the class

The teacher appeared a little bit nervous and sometimes got a bit tongue-tied when speaking English; she sometimes appeared unsure of her pronunciation.

When the teacher spoke Spanish, she didn't seem to modify her speech, it seemed quite fast (and I'm used to Andaluz!). Sometimes she would say something in Spanish and I thought I understood, but she obviously thought that at least some students hadn't, so she repeated the instructions in English. I actually found this quite frustrating as I felt I could have understood if she had repeated the Spanish words a bit more slowly. However, I didn't say anything.

When we introduced ourselves I said that I was an English language teacher. Now I wish I hadn't said that because maybe I'd like to make some requests, such as asking her to speak a bit more slowly, but I don't want her to feel like I'm telling her how to teach.

When we chatted about what activities we'd like to do in class, I noticed that the teacher didn't make any notes, so perhaps would not remember what we said. It will be interesting to see if our requests are followed up on.

The diagnostic test was a multiple-choice gap fill and was entirely based on grammar, specifically choosing the correct verb forms. As this is my weak point, it could give a false representation of my level, yet I think I was able to do ok due to knowing strategies for answering the questions.

When we were concentrating alone on an exercise it seemed painfully quiet. I could hear a clock ticking and it felt slightly uncomfortable!

All in all

It was very interesting to be back in a classroom as a language learner as it has been a few years since I had the opportunity and I really need to attend classes to motivate me to kick on with my Spanish. I really don't mind (at the moment) having an untrained teacher. I'm just happy that she's Spanish and not South American. No offence to South American Spanish speakers, but there is a difference and I need to converse with Spaniards, not Mexicans or Chileans, for example. I know what 'type' of Spanish I need and I don't wish to be introduced to the 'wrong' type for me at this stage.

I realised it was extremely difficult for me to switch off from observing what the teacher was doing and analysing every part of the lesson. I was even thinking of how I would have approached the instructions to a task or even how an activity could have been adapted, particularly in relation to the worksheets.

Anyway, these are a few of my thoughts. As always, please comment if you have anything to add! I'm interested to hear opinions related to the points I raise or any personal experiences of learning languages. I think it could be an interesting experience that will allow me to reflect on my own teaching beliefs as well as improving my language learning skills.

Related links:

Scott Thornbury's fantastic Maori class diary
James Taylor's Brazilian Portuguese class

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