System VoL 7, pp. 201-204. Pergamon Press Ltd. 1979. Printed in Great Britain

FROMSHAMETOLANGUAGEMAINTENANCE:SOME SUGGESTlONSFORABEGINNINGSNACLASS

ERLINDA GONZALES-BERRY

New Mexico State University

While most language departments recognize the need for a track destgned specifically

for native speakers of Spanish, many individuals involved in the actual implementation

of such programs find themselves in a bind because of the theoretical and pedagogical

theories regarding the teaching of a native language to students whose language com-

petency is characterized by a ‘non-standard’ dialect and negligible exposure to the

written word. This paper suggests the rejection of an eradication approach and favours

a more humanistic approach which takes into account the students’ affective ties to

the native dialect. The native dialect can and should be used as a foundation on which

to build Hispanophone students’ overall language competency with emphasis being

placed on the acquisition of reading and writing as life-time skills.

During the past decade, American universities have experienced a substantial increase in the

enrollment of Hispanic students who, for a variety of reasons, find their way into Language

Departments, seeking appropriate Spanish classes in which to enroll. This phenomenon has

created problems for many Spanish divisions, as they have become increasingly aware of the

fact that it is pedagogically unwise to place native speakers of Spanish in classes which have

been designed to teach Spanish as a foreign language to monolingual speakers of English.

Experience has shown that such a practice is non-productive because native speakers feel un-

challenged, on the one hand and, on the other, they resist the prescriptive grammatical

approach used to ‘teach’ them the language whose general grammatical structures they have

already internalized. Non-native speakers fare no better under such an arrangement, as they

often feel intimidated by the presence of native speakers in the class.

The realization that native speakers do not belong in classes designed to teach Spanish as a

foreign language is but the first step in meeting the special needs of the Hispanophone student.

Valdes Fallis, a leading theoretician in the field, has pointed out that a “body of social,

linguistic, or pedagogical theory concerning the teaching of Spanish to the Spanish-speaking

in the United States has not been developed. Because of this, teacher attitudes concerning new

programs, their basic purpose, the nature of the instructional process, the ordering of principal

objectives etc. are currently in a state of great flux.” Valdes Fallis goes on to point out that as

a result of the confusion arising from the lack of a theoretical or philosophical base “certain

groups within the profession speak of teaching standard Spanish as a second dialect, others

speak of teaching the language as a native language, while still others are involved in studying

the possibility of adapting existing textbooks for this specialized instruction” (1976, p. 5).

A perusal of various texts designed for classes for native-speakers will give us some idea of the

variety of approaches to which Valdes Fallis makes reference. In 1970 Victor Cruz-Aedo

et al. prepared an SNS guide for the Texas Education Agency. The intent of this pioneer text

was essentially to teach high school students standard Spanish as a second dialect, as we may

202 GONZALES-BERRY

ascertain from the following quote: “Hay que darles a 10s alumnos las nuevas expresiones

para que las sepan usar en las ocasiones apropiadas. Esto requiere prolongada practica durante

la etapa oral.” In order to meet their main objective, the authors employ the ALM mim-men

method and their text, consequently, differs from many SSL texts only to the extent that it

focuses on the regional variants of the students’ native dialect.

As early as 1953, there appeared a book by Pauline Baker, a Spanish teacher in the Deming,

New Mexico public school system, designed specifically for the Spanish native speaker. This

text, Espaiiol para Los hispanos, like that of Marie Esman Barker, El espaiiol para el bilingiie,

which appeared almost 20 years later, and that of Fidel de Leon, El espaiol de1 suroeste y

ei espaliol standard: material programado clearly demonstrates an eradication stance toward

the native dialect of their students. The approach of these authors is designed to show Hispano-

phone students that their language is incorrect, stigmatized and unacceptable. They speak

frequently of barbarismos and dogmatically admonish students that “no se dice.” While these

authors may have every good intention of teaching students “el espaiiol de la Academia Real,”

that is, in replacing the students’ native dialect with a standard dialect which supposedly will

afford them more status and social mobility, their approach neglects to take into account the

resultant damage to the students’ self-image.

The manner in which each one of us speaks English or Spanish or French or German is intimate-

ly linked to the way in which we perceive ourselves. If we are told that our language is in some

way ‘bad’ or ‘vulgar’, we will in all probability feel insecure and inadequate, and our ability to

function in a learning situation requiring the use of language will decrease accordingly. In fact,

we are often reminded by humanistic educators that few students will perform well in an

environment which does not place emphasis on the self-worth, dignity and the integrity of the

learner. To criticize and attempt to eradicate the native dialect of Spanish-speaking students

is to ignore the principles of humanistic education. Yet it is only through humanistic education

that we will reach the Hispanic student who already brings to our classrooms a rich repertoire

of non-humanistic educational experiences.

Leaving aside the affective dimension of the eradication approach, and focusing on its peda-

gogical effectiveness, it becomes readily apparent that this approach directs its main thrust at

the breaking down of ‘bad’ habits and the building of new habits which will hopefully replace

the old. Classroom time is far too precious to be wasted on the undoing of deeply ingrained

language habits which have considerable affective importance to the student. Hispanophone

students need, above all, to build their confidence regarding the use of the native language.

They need the opportunity to enrich their language experiences especially at the formal register,

since their experience with Spanish has been primarily at the intimate and casual registers.

While it is important that they learn something about the way in which their language func-

tions, a task which can readily be accomplished through a descriptive approach comparing

popular and formal speech, it is grossly unfair to these students to limit their entire academic

experience in Spanish to the study of grammar. A far more enriching approach is to make their

language experience a part of their total social, psychological and intellectual growth. Top

priority should be given to the development of thinking, reading, communication and writing

skills, in Spanish.

Once the sound/grapheme correspondences are taught, we can provide teacher-generated read-

ing materials related to the students’ oral language experiences. For example: family life,

cultural traditions, customs, values, folklore and community living are all topics that students

will recognize as familiar territory. By using materials whose content is familiar to students,

the decoding process will be facilitated and major emphasis can be placed on the development

of comprehension skills. We cannot assume that the student will automatically transfer his

comprehension skills from English, nor can we confuse the ability to decode or to translate

with the ability to comprehend the written word. Thus, each reading selection should be

FROM SHAME TO LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE 203

accompanied with comprehension checks and comprehension building exercises as well as with

vocabulary building exercises. Activities such as crossword puzzles and word games are fun

and challenging for students, especially if they are allowed to work in pairs or small informal

groups.

During the initial phases of reading, in fact, during the entire first course, we should limit our

expectations to literal comprehension. Critical and affective comprehension are extremely

sophisticated levels of interpretation and are best postponed until later stages of the reading

program. Many teachers will balk at my recommendation that the reading of creative literature

not be introduced in the first semester, yet I stand convinced that students will profit more,

initially, from reading materials limited to concrete reality and experiences which they can

readily identify and identify with.

The reading program should be complemented with intensive receptive activities such as formal

lectures, Spanish language movies and television where it is available, slide/tape cultural

modules, etc. This intensive exposure to formal oral language will help students to build their

repertoire of passive skills so that we may gradually increase the readability index of reading

assignments. These types of listening activities have the added benefit of contributing to the

students’ overall intellectual development, provided of course, that the content is informative

and intellectually stimulating.

The area of development of speaking skills can be very problematic for teachers, particularly

those who are insensitive to the students’ affective needs, In the first place, students will be

very reluctant to speak in class because they simply do not feel confident about their ability

to speak Spanish in an academic environment. The formal register of the teacher will no doubt

intimidate some students, while the anxiety to communicate will force others to use English

or else to feel deeply frustrated because they simply do not possess the vocabulary with which

to express abstract concepts. The teacher who is sensitive to the affective dimension of learn-

ing, will accept the students’ native dialect as a valued vehicle for communication, and will

be realistic in his/her expectations regarding how rapidly they can assimilate the formal register

of the language for oral communication. As students begin to feel confident expressing them-

selves in the accustomed manner, but now in the classroom atmosphere, they will begin to

experiment with the usage of new words and phrases which they might have initially avoided

for fear of sounding ‘strange’ to themselves or to others. While we may not be able to detect

the development of oral skills as readily as we might be able to perceive it in foreign language

classrooms, we can be sure that the intensive exposure to formal language in the receptive and

reading facets of the program are steadily building passive skills which the student can add to

his native repertoire.

In the area of writing, we need to begin at the most elementary level and focus on orthography

and accentuation at the word, phrase and sentence level. Extensive dictation and proof-reading

exercises can be most valuable strategies, as can be language experience activities in which

students discuss a familiar topic, a common experience, a picture of a drawing and then write

about those oral experiences. As teachers, we need to be very sensitive to the fact that these

students have probably never had to express themselves in writing in Spanish. They may feel

very awkward at suddenly having to do so. A strategy which has been useful in reducing

‘writing anxiety’ for my students is to have them write daily, as a matter of habit, for about

three minutes as soon as they enter the classroom. They may write about anything they choose

and what they write is not to be turned in for evaluation. It is kept in their notebooks and

periodically they are asked to leaf through to see if they can detect errors in spelling, use of

accents, use of articles and syntax.

From the sentence level students are ready to progress to more difficult task-oriented com-

position activities. Unfortunately, writing is the one area where language teachers seem to lack

creativity. We often think it is enough to assign a composition on a specific topic and then hack

204 GONZALES-BERRY

away with our red pencils. Composition exercises should consist of practice in various ways of

organizing written material. These exercises should expose students to the basic rhetorical/

organizational concepts such as definition and explanation, comparison and contrast, analogy,

inference, cause and effect. Composition exercises can very readily be tied in to reading exer-

cises which stress recognition of these same concepts. During the first course students should

not be expected to write more than one paragraph on a given topic or assignment. They should,

however, be required to check their paragraph carefully for spelling or structure errors and to

be conscious of the organization techniques employed in their compositions.

So far as classroom techniques are concerned, students should have the opportunity to work

daily on each of the four language skills. This can be accomplished by planning a variety of

short activities covering all four skills rather than by working an entire period on one skill.

The short but repeated dosage technique, while more difficult to pian and organize, offers

the advantage of reinforcement and helps avoid boredom.

In conclusion, I want to stress that if, as teachers of Spanish, we are truly concerned with the

maintenance of that language in this country, the skills we teach in our SNS courses should

reflect that commitment. We will accomplish very little if we attempt to shame students into

replacing their native speech with a second standard dialect. On the other hand, we can provide

some basic life-time skills, particularly in the written dimension of Spanish, which will heighten

our Hispanophone students’ pride in being bilingual.

REFERENCES

BAKER, Pauline 1966 Espaiiol para 10s hispanos, 2nd Edn, National Textbook Co., Skokie, IL.

BARKER, Marie Esman 1971 Espaiiol para el bilingiie, National Textbook Co., Skokie, IL.

CRUZ-AEDO, Victor et al. 1970 Espanol para alumnos hispanohablantes: Niveles I y II de

secundaria, Texas Education Agency Bulletin, No. 702, TEA, Austin, TX.

de LEdN, Fidel 1976 El espaiiol de1 suroeste y el espaiiol standard: material programado,

Sterling Swift Publishing Co., Manchoca, TX.

VALDES FALLIS, Guadalupe 1976 Teaching Spanish to the Spanish Speaking: Theory and

Practice, Pedagogical Implications of Teaching Spanish to the Spanish-Speaking in the United

States, eds. Guadalupe Valdes Fallis and Rodolfo Garcia-Moya, Trinity University, San

Antonio, TX, 5.