Observers: Kelly and Kendall, participants: Gerri and Josiah.

What happened:

Ten students sat in a semi-circle in front of the teacher, who was in the middle, facing the students.  Using only Spanish, he taught us the words for see, hear, stand up, sit down, men, and women, using pointing and gestures.  We physically responded to his cues, and he gradually introduced more commands.  He did the movements with us until he felt that we understood the cues, which were always verbally given. Once he thought we had a solid grasp of a command, he stopped doing the movement himself.

He taught us body parts and the words for walk and dance, which he then incorporated into a song, called “Juanito cuando baila…” We danced along with a video of Juanito cuando baila and then sat back down.

The next thing the teacher introduced was the word for blocks, numbers one though four, and four colors, green, red, yellow, and blue. He put each one underneath a numbered cup, and we had to say aloud the number we thought a particular block was under. Then he wrote the phrase for “Put the yellow block on top of the green block,” on the board and read the words aloud to us. A volunteer would come forward and stack the blocks according to the instructions. Then that volunteer would change the colors and another volunteer would stack the blocks again.

Next he handed out various shapes in the four colors we had learned, and he had us describe the name of each shape and whether it was big or small, via yes or no questions. He handed each student a shape.  Then he would describe a particular shape, and the student who had the shape would lift it.  He also had a student pick a shape and he would guess it, using yes or no questions, which we answered.

Lastly, he handed out five pictures and described in Spanish what was going on in each.  Then he asked who was holding a particular picture, and we called out that students’ name.

Our affective filter was lowered because we could participate at will, and weren’t called out alone to try to produce the language. We only had to respond with our classmates’ names, or with numbers, or through movement, such as touching body parts or standing up. Participants felt that it was easier to recognize information rather than recall it.

We noticed that participants who did not know Spanish were nervous at first because they didn’t know what to expect. As they grew acclimated to the expectations and requirements of the activity they became more relaxed. However, with the addition of new information, anxiety rose again because the more information was added, the harder it became to recall the words.

We think this is a very useful activity for learning simple, basic vocabulary words such as numbers, colors, and body parts.  We also think it would be useful for breaking up monotony during class-time because it gets students out of their desks, physically interacting in a direct way.

There are certain topics that don’t lend themselves well to this method of teaching. One of the things that could not be taught in this way is writing. Another examples is grammar concepts, such as the subjunctive, which, for example, even if it could be acted out, sounds the same as the present in French.