During this lesson, the teacher (Davita Alston) asked two native Spanish speakers of around the same age as her students to come and speak to her class about their leisure activities and hobbies.

She scaffolded the conversation with the two guest Spanish speakers through a series of activities which her students did before the guest speakers came in:

• First of all, the teacher handed out conversation cards to the students with instructions for a two-part conversation which the students carried out in pairs. One student (A) would ask the other student (B) whether they would like to do some activity together. Then B would answer “Yes”, “No, sorry, I don’t like…” or “I would prefer…”. Once the students had agreed on an activity, they would negotiate a time for it. The teacher said that this was to get them thinking about the things that they normally do, as a stepping stone to the rest of the lesson.
• Once the students had completed the dialogue in pairs, the teacher asked for a volunteer to model a conversation with her for the rest of the class. After that, she asked for a pair of volunteers to have the conversation in front of the class.
• Third, the teacher asked the students to do a three minute brainstorming activity in groups of four. She designated roles for each group, which the students could assign among themselves. Each group had a writer, a clock-watcher, and two talkers. The objective was to write down a list of activities that American kids do to have fun in their free time. Each group wrote their list on half of a large piece of paper. Meanwhile, the teacher circulated among the groups, encouraging them to come up with more detail when necessary.
• After the brainstorming activity, the teacher asked each group to share two things from their list, with no repeats allowed. This allowed each group the opportunity to listen and hear what the other groups had come up with.
• Fifth, the teacher showed the students a video of young people from Spanish-speaking countries talking about the things they like to do in their free time. She asked the students to be thinking about questions they could ask. After the video was over, she asked the students for a few things which they had understood that youth from Spanish-speaking countries like to do.
• Finally, the students got into groups of four again, and brainstormed questions they could ask Spanish-speaking youth.

After each of these scaffolding steps was completed, the teacher brought in the two guest speakers and introduced them.

The two guest speakers spoke about their daily activities, and the teacher asked clarifying questions, sometimes explaining things so that her class would understand it.

One difference in the experience of Ms. Alston’s students and that of the guest speakers was that the two guest speakers had lived in a very rural area and had helped out a lot with chores and harvesting.

After a while, the students asked the guest speakers some questions, for example, about shopping and sports.

Once the guest speakers had left, the teacher had the students talk about the differences and similarities in the leisure activities of youth in America and in Mexico (where the guest speakers were from). As a visual aid to the discussion, the teacher created a Venn diagram. This helped the students think about cultural connections and diversity between different cultures.

I think that bringing in guest speakers who are fluent in the target language is a very good activity for language learners. It can make the language and culture seem more real and personable, and provide another source of comprehensible input who is not the teacher. It can provide excitement through varying routine.

Ms. Alston provided very effective scaffolding for her class in order to allow them to gain the maximum benefit from interaction with the guest speakers. The class was well prepared to ask and understand good questions about leisure activities and their answers.

One thing I noticed was that the two kids who came in as guest speakers seemed quite nervous most of the time. They were likely nervous because they didn’t know the kids in the class, and because they were the center of attention and the object of questioning. They may have also felt that they might be judged for how they spoke or what they said. A final reason why they might have been nervous is that this activity singles them out as different, whereas it can be very important to kids of that age to fit in. As the conversation progressed, both kids became visibly calmer.

Because of this, it is very important for a teacher to look out for the affective needs, not only of their students, but also of their guest speakers, especially if those guest speakers are children or youth.