Of all the awkward comments that students make, the one that most concerns me is: “well, I can understand everything that you say but I just can´t talk that well.” Well, Duh! I believe that our greatest enemy is ignorance for it will convert lies into truth and will turn naiveté into downright ineptitude.  Well, it`s okay to know that you don´t know-there´s hope. But, to not know that you don´t know, now that´s catastrophic! When students say that they understand or can read better than they can speak, that let´s me know that they don´t realize that this is completely normal and natural…that’s the way it should be! This is the state in which most literate and college students find themselves when studying another language. I have never known an educated woman who actually spoke better than she could read, or spoke better than she could understand…does this make sense? Speaking IS our weakest skill, unless we are illiterate! This is normal, don’t freak out as if you`re a freak. So, please don’t let ignorance detain you from venturing in the speaking forum. So, the next time I hear this, I will throw a book at the brick wall and hope that it is thrown back at me!

Student, understand that speaking is your weakest skill. And, as soon as you become aware of this, you will lose this fear of speaking since you’ realize that speaking well is a life-long task. Nobody is worse or better, the other student who you perceive as cuasi-fluent is really not. They speak just as bad as you do. So, please, go ahead and speak. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. If children can do this, you should be able to, as well! Let the mistakes roll off your tongue. 

And, there’s nothing worse than a student who is afraid to speak. Why? As an language instructor, I can’t assess your level unless you speak. And, now that I find myself in Valladolid with these 20 or so students who said that they want to be able to speak it better, they need to accept the fact that they aren´t any less competent than anybody else with regard to this skill. Speaking IS an innate characteristic, exclusively human. But, Good Speaking is NOT! This has to be rehearsed. In order to learn a language, one must first listen to it, a lot, and then little by little begin to produce it, by speaking first and then by writing. Writing, as I’ve mentioned in “oral communication…” is helpful after you’ve begun to speak and after having been exposed to it a bunch! When instructors distort this natural order, language learning becomes unnatural and students begin to realize that they can definitely read, understand and write, but can barely say “*me llamo es Sonia.” Get beyond this ignorant and erroneous idea and for goodness sake, let’s cultivate the most beautiful and primitive of art forms: speaking.

Para aquéllos que no han llegado a la reunión, el miércoles, 9 de julio, tendrán que presentarse el viernes para recuperar las horas perdidas.

Las reuniones por lo general, serán los martes, de 6.30 horas a las 8.00 pm.

Pues, qué día. Anoche, fuimos a una fiesta de bienvenida en el bar, la negra flor, con unos 60 estudiantes. Fue tremendo. Fue bonito que todos pudiéramos reunirnos y charlar, beber y divertirnos. Estuvimos allí hasta las 2 de la madruga y después me tocó acompañar a varias chicas a sus casas y por fin, al cabo de 2 1-2 horas, llegué a casa, en la plaza mayor. Hoy no desperté hasta que sonaron a la puerta para la comida, las 14.30 horas. Dormí como un tronco. Bueno, anoche fue agradable a pesar de la extensa caminata. De todas formas, es una thiudad prethiosha!

Pues, increíble pero cierto. Les escribo desde la tierra de los majos, colegas, tíos, e.t.c., España o Eshpaña! Estoy contento de estar aquí en este programa de intercambio con los alumnos de UTA. Pues estos días han estado repletos de sorpresas. Somos más de 20 alumnos, la Prof Sonia Kania y mi persona, con el fin de preparar a los alumnos en su odisea didáctica. Ya vamos en el cuarto día y sobran las novedades.

Estoy hospedado con el encantador y prototípcio español, Ricardo, director del instituto Universitas Castellae, en la ciudad castellano leonés dos horas y media al noroeste de la capital Madrid. Una ciudad preciosa, en toda la extensión de la palabra que habita los mejores monumentos arquitectónicos del reino. Y, su tiempo, ni se diga! En Tejas, estaría deshidratándome en la humedad y el calor agobiante mientras que aquí, uno hasta siente frío. Oscila entre los 80 y 85 grados farenheit por el día y los 50 a 55 por la noche. !Qué más se puede pedir! Es una maravilla. Estoy hospedado justo en frente de la Plaza mayor, en el piso de Ricardo, el director y su esposa e hijas. Son majos y !él es gran chef! Por eso, disfruto la buena cocina española entre cultura y delicias gastronómicas. Bueno, la ciudad la atraviesa el Río Pisuerga, idóneo para correr a sus riberas entre la muchedumbre que disfruta de los senderos y una chula vista. A pesar de ser ciudad de 400.000 habitantes, es fácil atravesarla a pie, por supuesto, el coche, pues nada. La gasolina con un costo de más de $8.00 por galón o 1.35 euros por litro es prohibitiva. Fui a caminar ayer buscando un buen sitio para disfrutar un jog y el que encontré fue el río y qué mejor. Además he ido a comprar algunas prendas, dado que llegamos justo al inicio del período de rebajas.

El horario:

Qué es lo que más me encanta: es difícil identificarlo? Pero, aparte del excelente tiempo que hace, el hecho que la familia come junta a eso de las 14.30 h por un espacio de una hora, por lo menos y después, a echar la siesta. !Qué vida! El horario laboral sigue a partir de las 17 horas y hasta las 21 horas. Entonces, salen los troncos de sus casas para reunirse con amigos en los bares…y a platicar, reir, beber, fumar y disfrutar entre los suyos. Me encanta este ritmo ya que es por naturaleza, el que yo practico en EE.UU. de modo oficial y bien habituado…despertar temprano, almorzar, echar la siesta y pasar hasta la madrugada laticando. !Qué genial!

I’m a talker. My job is to talk and I thoroughly enjoy it. And, I get this from my mama, who is extraordinarily chastised for speaking when it’s not due. This is what I get paid to do: talk, talk, blah, blah, guiri, guiri, guiri. So, as an instructor, I’m always in the spotlight. I always need to scan my brain for the best way to express, to explain, to extrapolate. And, it really takes its toll. While others prefer to sit quietly in the library or at their computer desk, I’d rather be on stage, shouting, singing. But, teaching is not a show. It’s a profession. So, how do we accommodate our speech to please, comfort, console, inspire an average of 30 students, which in my case, is my typical audience? Well, you can’t help a stranger unless you take the time to listen to his concerns. At some point, the instructor must take the time to listen to student preocupations to devise a plan. 

This Summer, I’ve had to give “pep talks” (as my students call them) encouraging them to forge ahead. But, I often wonder if this appropriate since I don’t recall my instructors having given me “pep talks” when I truly felt that there was no way that I could master the lesson. Is it that taking the time to encourage is not in our nature, or would it make the instructor seem weak, since she would need to speak not from her mind rather from the soul, these words that could appease the emotional and mental strain that seems to gently pick it’s way through our senses? I like to call most professors untouchable. It’s easy to become disconnected from the soul and focus on developing the mind. But, I might be an anomaly or backward, but I need my soul to be at ease before engaging in learning language concepts. If the instructor could just take a moment to prepare ”el alma”, I believe that knowledge would begin to sink in. And precisely is it where we expect data to sink (into the mind-probably not)? Knowledge will be recalled when it becomes part of your being. And, in order for this to occur, it must be registered by the brain, transferred to the heart and eventually manifest itself via the most primitive of art forms and oldest manifestation of knowledge: speech…or gugu, gaga, baba, mama…

Next point that concerns me is: what will happen with a generation that truly prefers to communicate mechanically and therefore, colorlessly. It’s interesting how much technology has impacted language teaching and society, in general. We prefer to text or email because we perceive these as more efficient…save time and money, right? Wrong, it takes me much longer to get my true point across when  I text. I think a quick phone call or message would have been appropriate. But, no.

Now, what are the implications for language learning if people no longer converse, if they just prefer to send a quick text instead of relishing on diction and dictation? It is true that in order to better your speaking, you need to write more. This is where emailing comes in very handy. Write a couple of sentences (hopefully coherent and grammatically sound) each day and you’re on your way to becoming an avid writer and therefore a more effective speaker. But, this implies that you have the faculty of speaking, right? You must be able to speak in order for writing to help. Speaking must be developed first. And, not vice versa. Writing cannot replace speaking. This is unnatural and its effects are detrimental.

In the language classroom, students must be encouraged, if not forced to use the target language in order to show that truly something has entered their brain and cultivated in the heart. We must keep in mind that we will remember data which we find interesting, relevant and important to us. We don’t remember things that are important to others, hence forgetting b-days, anniversaries, or even phone numbers. We remember things that are relevant, pertinent to OUR lives. So, at one point, the knowledge must be analyzed, meditated upon and manifested through the mouth by speaking. Let’s not underestimate the value of speaking. Students aparrently don’t converse enough with their peers, hence failed relationships and broken homes (physically and spiritually). Why would we then undermine the human voice in its purest form, the spoken word in the language classroom?