MAKING FIRST YEARS FUNCTION Teachers of Spanish are devoutly grateful to realize that the justification of their existence and that of their departments is a fact more or less taken for granted and that without fear of ambushed attacks they may develop forces within their own ranks for other than defense. Even in the two-year high-school language course are found ample opportunities and means of employing the wide-awake teacher and the alert Hispanist, aside from technical values. Many of the old and hackneyed means of carrying over values to the high-school pupil are giving way to more feasible plans of advancing the needed fundamentals. Modifications of the direct method can be found as surely as they are sought, if the seeker probe into the situation for a recipe to follow in the "sugar-coating" of the principles involved. And until attainment tests in language work be adequately advanced, all teachers must labor with the aim in mind of reserving material to pass on to others in similar situations and circumstances. Some material the writer has found helpful, although of necessity original, will be here set forth, with its primal aims, in the hope of strengthening some vagrant aspiration to make Spanish the vital part of the curriculum it must some day be with our collaborators as well as with our executives. In the early weeks of beginning Spanish, all terror vanished for the students as well as the teacher by a simple pre-introductory period in the first-year work thus: Posters of uncut bristol board with highly colored advertisements of seasonable fruits and vegetables make a combination palatable to the pupil hungry for actual contact with workable knowledge usually not found in texts. The question ¿Qué es esto? varied with the position of questioner and student, once the gender and article association becomes fixed, supplies not only basic drill in names of familiar fruits and other edibles as used, but lays adequate foundation for the demonstratives in their turn. The normal sequence of articles then comes to the objects in the classroom, which assume new interest when designated by the Spanish name. Plural forms and numerals, and later the conjugation of verbs (for example, "tomar," "comer," "abrir," and later "tener," "ver," "querer," etc.) evolve from constant use of classroom paraphernalia. In the course of events the writer was thrust, as the language teacher always is in time of stress and crowded conditions, into the school cafeteria for classes. Unusual opportunity presented itself in a manner so gratifying that it more than overbalanced the disappointment of having neither a place to write nor classroom apparatus to utilize. For here were trays, silverware, glassware, porcelain, even kitchen utensils, to use in sentence and phrase work. Another time when delay in textbooks made imperative a novel class procedure, a celluloid menagerie furnished typical amusement of a very constructive nature. The student learned in a much more retentive fashion the connection between "perro" and "ladrar," etc., than would have been possible with ever so much more and harder practice with less of the realism. Parts of the body were memorized by paper figures whose detachable "brazos," "cabezas," etc., made the association much more accurate than by either reading or individual attempts at illustrations. A vocabulary used is worth dozens of lexicons accessible only between the covers of a book or on library shelves. And a running start of vocabulary drill is more surely acquired by use aside from any book than immediate acquaintance with texts before the sounds are firmly or habitually fixed in the aural and visual experience of the pupils. After four to eight weeks of the foregoing type of presentation, growing normally from word-study to phrases, idiomatic expressions, and later full sentence drills, some accurate textbook placed in the hands of the pupils becomes more than a maze of forms. The full sentences may be varied by interrogative and negative forms, inversion of subject, etc., insertion of "no" and other typical linguistic traits of the language, thereby becoming a habit of locution even before seeing the printed or written sounds. Where the writer has been consulted, she has always expressed a preference for the book that has no vocabulary presented as such other than the one used in the lesson by a sequence of actions to be enacted by the teacher for the class before the book presentation. Persons less favorable to the direct method might alter many of these opinions. Reading in the first year presented an incongruity for a number of years, until the varied possibilities of reading material simple enough for beginners was diligently searched for and discovered. Reading to and for the students has a desirable psychological effect in the proportion of the plasticity of the minds dealt with, and the third reading can quite properly be done by the children themselves with surprising accuracy of intonation and each time an added naturalness of expression, elision, and always increasing appreciation of the vocabulary presented. Children actually learn to think in Spanish if association. and grouping of phrase meanings is presented to them in place of the daily Spanish-English or English-Spanish vocabulary of word-lists. Variation of memory work in idiomatic expressions and phrases can be made interesting if not intricate in the selection of phrases and sentences from the nearest English equivalent to be found by the pupils in the text studied. A youngster who has not been drilled in the constant method of "¿Qué quiere decir en ingles . . .?" finds real pleasure in the newer one of "¿Cómo se dice . . . ?" with an applied form or some minor alteration from the original as found in the lesson of the day. Many lessons afford opportunity for short oral composition, subject to the alteration of form or combination by either the teacher or alert students in the class on some word found in the text of the day's work. It has truly been the experience of the writer to hear quite commendable oral compositions upon words like "carrizal," "jefe," etc., from actual association with the work of the day in reading in the first year. Later combinations of pictures on the topics earlier discussed can be arranged by either teacher or pupils, and brief reviews may precede the regular work of the day. Or "true-false" tests may be arranged. from material adapted to the content of the lesson similarly. Characters of stories may be presented from magazine picturizations, and in this the children's ingenuity often exceeds the expectation of the most farsighted teacher. Drawings to illustrate favorite passages often enhance the interest over a particularly dry or difficult assignment. Dramatizations, when not too reliant upon the text and therefore literal forms, give younger pupils a gratifying chance to possess the story under consideration. Spelling contests of various words that afford particular stumbling spots in the reading give vent to memorizing sound combinations unfamiliar in English, and furnish background for orthographic alterations to follow. This to be in Spanish, of course. Games may be originated to fit the story under discussion. If an animal story is used, one may derive practice from retelling from the animal's point of view. If a fairy story, one may transform everyday background into usable setting for guessing games and question and answer games, dependent upon the story material of the day's lesson for correct reply. Written work progresses at a much more rapid rate when the child thinks in the medium of Spanish, instead of doing the day's lesson in a roundabout way. Many lessons afford opportunity for two- to three-minute oral compositions on words of the day's reading. It has been the reader's pleasure, no doubt, as the writer's, to listen to original construction of two or three minutes' duration that on account of its peculiar appeal to the student forced repeated research through the associated words of the same lesson. Other methods of fixing the work in the minds of the students are found in written and memory work later in the term. When a student has been reading the Spanish without much refreshment, he often has no incentive for continued oral practice without false impetus, and the writer has given Spanish phrases to be found in the new assignment which the child is then keyed to search for in his advance study. Or the English words comprising new idiomatic phrases to be found in the lesson, arranged in consecutive order so as to facilitate practice and do away with the necessity of too much vocabulary or dictionary work, prove equally helpful. Occasional work on short sentence construction, changing only slightly the original, interests children and will result in nearly perfect use of phrases in the lesson. And if care is employed in the blackboard work one may inspire quite as natural acquisition of Spanish conversation as by basing the work entirely upon oral drill. It is often more than simply competitive expression that results if two children are assigned the same sentence for board work; by either one dictating, subject to the other's suggestions, or both writing and the suggestions and corrections coming from the class later. Sometimes entire chapter reviews in Spanish have been done in simplified manner by the first- as well as second-year students with very little verbatim material and resulting in remarkably few errors by the following method of assignment. After making an assignment of complete oral review over a certain well-studied section of the text being read, the writer has asked for ten or more sentences that carry the main thoughts of the day's lesson. These may be sought in Spanish, transcribed to English for dictation in Spanish, or given entirely in English and identified with the Spanish in the text. The next logical assignment is rewriting the portion covered by review in a limited number of words. If proper emphasis has been placed upon the importance of sentence order and brevity, few errors are likely to be encountered in this preparation. When alternate work is advisable, the writer has assigned two or three children to certain paragraphs of the review, and splendid paraphrasing is done in Spanish, thereby furnishing drill and practice and in a manner novel enough to give permanent results. Blackboard paraphrasing is always advantageous after a thorough review of any section read, because all the class members may profit by the corrections made before them. Limitations of space and time in a paper of this type are much more readily acclaimed than are limitations of attainment in even first- and second-year Spanish classes under the direction and supervision of an instructor ready and willing to search in original and untried, as well as proved, methods of accomplishment. And granted the willing heart, the steadfast mind, and the guiding hand, no teacher will need to recognize or regret failure, even with classes of average linguistic aptitude. ROCKY FORD HIGH SCHOOL JULIA COGSWELL FRANKLE |