This reflective analysis chronicles the time I spent as a new language learner in high school to the way I feel

about teaching a foreign language today. The beginning of my career as a student was brought to a close ironically employing the same teaching methods. Experiences rich in context proved to be my personal best approach to learning. Focusing on performance, an inviting atmosphere and task-oriented student centered learning best describes my beliefs about how best to teach foreign language. The year was 1989. I was graduating from a small Catholic high school in Michigan. The economy had been suffering. More students were forced into free public schooling in lieu of paying high tuition rates. As a result, our single sex all-girls high school became a co-educational high school during my sophomore year. Aside from changes in enrollment, there were big changes in faculty as well. Many teachers were from the religious orders affiliated with the school. However, many sisters and brothers left their positions for retirement, looking at the merger as the time to retire. The initial exposure I had to Spanish was in a small classroom of 14 students, all of whom were girls. The sister who taught our class used a classical teaching method called Grammar Translation. (Brown, 2007) We received lists of words to memorize and diagrammed sentences picking out subjects, verbs and clauses. Often we were given moderate paragraphs of text to translate into English with little conversational exchange or practice with pronunciation. We did lots of drills and had many quizzes on spellings of verbs in different tenses. Then, in my junior year, after the merger, the school had hired a new teacher. She was a native of Mexico, yet was raised in the United States. It was exciting to learn from a younger person and see the language come to life. She taught with a comprehension-based approach and focused less on drills and more on every day conversation. She spoke to us in the target language and allowed us to make errors with minimal correction. She welcomed attempts at form, yet

never forced us into speaking. The classroom atmosphere seemed real and casual, not mechanical or formal. Her approach to language acquisition was modeled after Krashen giving us skills for everyday language situations in a relaxed atmosphere. She provided comprehensible input, increasing our knowledge of language gradually. (Brown, 2007) During my high school years my parents had a time-share condo in Acapulco, Mexico. For three years our family spent two weeks in February on the beaches of Acapulco enjoying the sun and culture. It was the time I spent in Mexico that my love for Spanish culture emerged. One year I made friends with a young man who could only speak Spanish. His name was Ricardo. He wrote to me in Spanish for two years following our meeting. His letters gave me an incentive to study and improve my skills. They were often quite humorous due to the poetic nature of Hispanic writing. At 16 I was not accustomed to the niceties in the opening paragraphs of a letter in the English language. When necessary my teacher would help with colloquialisms and difficult translations but I still have those letters today. My first two years in college were at a private all-girls school once again. I had a male professor who taught the 100 and 200 level classes. He was very strict. He spoke in a typical thick theta Spanish accent. He was dark-haired with a moustache. He was exactly what you think of when you think of a Spanish bull-fighter full of machismos who also teaches Spanish. He emphasized grammar structures with lots of practice exercises out of our textbook. He spoke strictly Spanish in the classroom. He was boring and frequently lost my attention. His themes were grammatical and never interesting. Despite the beauty of the language I could rarely recall what he said. His approach was most similar to the direct method. I spent many hours in the language lab each week working on correct pronunciation and listening comprehension. (Brown, 2007) I would have this teacher for freshmen and sophomore years in college.

By the end of those first two years, my parents were experiencing a business downturn and I could no longer afford to go to the private all-girls college I attended without their financial help. I was working three jobs and barely had time to study. Unable to pay my tuition, I put in for a leave of absence to attend a public university in Michigan. There I advanced into the 300 level courses. As a result I qualified to go on a study abroad experience. I chose to study in Cceres, Spain. This is a smaller city four hours south of Madrid. In the year 1992 I spent five months in Europe studying at the Universidad de Extremedura. This was the most influential of all my learning experiences. I lived the language. The use for vocabulary came out of direct need to negotiate meaning with those I encountered. My initial two weeks in Spain were difficult. Speaking the language was exhausting at first. However, following a short adjustment period the following months made a lasting impression on me. While living with two students from Spain, who were sisters in my home-stay experience, I learned the most when it came to vocabulary acquisition. They were who I spoke with most. There was a moment in time I remember very distinctly. The first word I had ever spoken in which I didnt learn from a book happened in their kitchen. I had very appropriately used averiguarse in a sentence. I hadnt even known I knew this word, but despite my unconscious awareness, it sprang from my mouth perfectly placed like that of a native. That was 22 years ago. Also unique to my experience in Spain, were my courses of history, Spanish composition, Geography and Spanish Literature. These classes were taught to all students at the University and were not part of the language curriculum. I had only ever been taught Spanish language in Spanish. To have the opportunity to experience a content-based class was incomprehensible to me at the time. Yet it was magnificent and very stimulating. I did well in all of my language courses in Spain, just as in the United States. I really felt I had found my niche. From that study abroad experience I gained observable, measurable

improvements in speaking, listening, reading and writing Spanish. I also became inspired to continue Spanish language coursework my senior year. I was determined I would somehow use it in my life. The last year of college I took a 400 level course taught by a man from Spain much different than the first. He spoke only in Spanish. He was younger though and the course was on a series of classic pieces of Spanish literature. The final project was a 25 page paper on the works of literature we read, addressing themes we discussed throughout the semester. The class was content-based, and taught exclusively in Spanish. I enjoyed the class discussions and especially the writing component. I felt at that time I could express myself very well in writing. There were also two other courses that stood out, a phonetics/linguistics course and an advanced grammar course. Americans taught both courses and the linguistics, also authored our textbook. She spoke with a beautiful Spain-Spanish accent. She used real examples and context to teach us. She provided examples we could relate to about topics that interested us. Her class included lots of opportunities to engage in conversation with a variety of tasks. The tasks required the use of more complex grammar structures to complete. I didnt realize it, but at the time, her taskbased teaching was cutting edge for the early 1990s. (Brown, 2007) My final course in college ironically ended my senior year much like my beginning course in 9th grade Spanish 1. The professor taught using the grammar translation method. He gave us many sentences to translate. In addition, I remember having a whole notebook of sentences with lines and branches of lines coming from them in which we diagrammed. The sentences were more advanced than I have two sisters and other simple phrases I learned in high school. I found this to be a nice way to finish my coursework. I had come full-circle.

There are core beliefs evident in my teaching that emerged from my experiences as a student. Foreign language is experienced and acquired in context. Students should learn in a warm environment lacking fear and anxiety. Content should encourage personalization of conversation and written work to make it relevant to the student. Speech should be spontaneous. Students should be given real world tasks to solve in which there is a need for language. A teacher should ignite intrinsic motivation in her students and be an encourager. Technology should be incorporated into learning, used to engage students. Teachers should have measurable goals and objectives and work toward them. A teacher should feel accomplished. And lastly, units should be learner centered and theme based. The two most significant advances I made in acquiring foreign language were during my travels to Mexico and Spain. Hearing the language spoken and associating meaning with context were very powerful. As a result, in my classroom, I believe that the best way for my students to learn is through context. This can best be implemented through a top-down approach where language is presented as a whole. I can re-create the need for language in the classroom. I can create tasks for my students to accomplish that place them in need of the target vocabulary to accomplish a task. (Shrum & Glison, 2010) (Lee & VanPatten, 2003) I can use my experiences and the emotion to re-create scenarios that are authentic for my student. I believe its important to have meaningful conversation that is not mechanical and drill-like. Its important to create original natural exchanges and interaction among the students. (Waltz, 1989) In a classroom, just as in your house, you should feel a sense of ownership and safety. Students should place a trust in the teacher that allows them to feel confident enough in themselves, in my presence to commit errors without ridicule or a feeling of inadequacy. There is a socio-affective part of learning that greatly impacts students. Students can become paralyzed

by anxiety and stress. This can stall or impede learning. A supportive environment increases motivation to learn. (Lightbown, 2006) Rewarding effort, comprehension and minimal expectations at output initially, can build a positive relationship for students in respect to language acquisition. Having a large amount of input for students can also be comforting. Each class should begin with input and benefits from the use of visuals. (Lee & VanPatten, 2003) Input places students on the receiving end of communication and by teacher conduct, takes the pressure off to respond. We can engage our students by making our conversations about them. We can organize our content into themes that have to do with their everyday lives. When we talk about subjects like our school day; we can activate curiosity and excitement about the language especially when students are trying to anticipate what we are going to say. (Shrum & Glison, 2010) Getting to know your students, what activities they are involved in, relationships they have to each other and tying in the target language is how to capture interest and excitement to learn. Building upon the national standards of learning a foreign language, you can use this background information to guide students into making comparisons to Spanish communities. By knowing our students we can draw on their experiences and that of the target culture. Language is spontaneous. If a student does not know any native Spanish-speakers, perhaps I would be the only Spanish they experience, in terms of language and culture. Without additional exposure, as a teacher, I need to consider my role. I have a responsibility to my students. It is important to create spontaneous conversation with the students, to prepare them, for real-life opportunities that may arise. A students first authentic conversation in the target language is a crowning moment. Providing them with opportunities to practice, to build

confidence, is important. Spontaneous speech can paralyze language learners in their response time without modeling this type of exchange in the classroom. There are many methods to employ and strategies used to teach students. Whichever method suits her students, the use of technology can help achieve learning goals. Many benefits have been noted in second language learning using technology in the acquisition of language. Advantages are increased motivation; means for distance learning, increased independence, and student controlled pacing, access to more dialects, contextualized teaching, exposure to international perspectives, and increased opportunities for human to human interaction. (Salaberry, 2001) Often the novelty of new technology and the curiosity it brings are beneficial as well. Having goals and objectives to work towards embraces the current standards based curriculum in foreign language teaching. Measuring student performance is critical. Goals should be an interactive exchange of information with a map guiding teaching. (Lee & VanPatten, 2003) A clear objective with a rubric provides evidence of student learning. Students should be able to identify the current class period goal, the unit goal and whether they have achieved the goals. The goals should be performance based and meet objectives within the five Cs of the national standards for language learning; Communication, Culture, Connections, Community and Comparisons. Students need to be active participants in their own learning and have lots of opportunity to use the target language. The types of activities in a learner-centered classroom should be meaning-focused. Just by placing students in pairs or groups does not guarantee meaningful communication or negotiation of meaning. The activities should be purposeful and open-ended. The task should not look for imitation or parroting of the teacher, neither be drill-like. They

should be crafted in such a way students are dependent upon each other and require cooperation among the students. (Ballman, 1998) My role as the teacher should be to provide student with enough information to perform a task or carry out meaningful interaction and information exchange and to organize students so that they may be working independent of me. Students may help one another and look out for the students who struggle. I think creating a positive learning environment begins with structuring learner centered tasks where the affective aspect is as important as the accomplishing the task itself.

Works Cited
Ballman, T. (1998). From Teacher Centered to Learner Centered: Guidelines for Sequencing and Presenting Elements of a FL Lesson. The Coming of Age of the Profession, 97-111. Boyles, P. P., Met, M., Sayers, R. S., & Wargin, C. E. (2011). Realidades. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Hall. Brown, H. D. (2007). Teaching by Principles An Integrative Approach to Language Pedagogy. New York: Pearson Education, Inc. . Lee, J., & VanPatten, B. (2003). Building Toward a Proficiency Goal. In J. Lee, & B. VanPatten, Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen, 2nd Ed. (pp. 74-98). New York: McGraw-Hill. Lightbown, P. (2006). Popular Ideas about Language Learners Revisited. In P. Lightbown, & N. Spada, How Languages are Learned (pp. 183-194). Oxford University Press. Salaberry, M. R. (2001). The Use of Technology for Second Language Learning and Teaching: A Retrospective. Modern Language Journal, 39-56. Shrum, J. L., & Glison, E. W. (2010). Teacher's Handbook. Boston: Heinle, Cengage Learning. Waltz, J. (1989). Context and Contextualized Language Practice in Foreign Langauge Teaching. Modern Language Journal, 160-168.