Title: Why were Crows Black? "El espantapájoros"
Authors: Pinzl, Michelle; Brougham, Rose Marie
Discipline: Modern Languages, Spanish Language & Culture
Submission Date: June 12, 2015
Abstract: One of the most difficult hurdles for English speakers to overcome is narrating in the past. Spanish relies on two past tense verb forms: the preterit and the imperfect. Intermediate 1 students have already had exposure and some limited practice with the conjugation and the use of the forms, but because they have the option of two verb forms from which to choose, English speakers have difficulty relating to the cultural perspectives these tenses require. In an attempt to clear this hurdle our program uses a spiral approach, meaning each course level reviews the concept and adds a level of difficulty.
Because the course for this lesson study is the first of two Intermediate Spanish courses, students are introduced to and practice these forms in a very general sense, explicitly leaving out the many nuances they will see in future courses. The objective for students is to be able to conjugate verbs, identify the use of the tenses and begin to use them correctly in structured oral and written narratives.
To structure our lesson plan we chose to embed the grammar lesson inside the reading and viewing of an authentic text and video. This structure is based on the teaching grammar through reading lesson presented in The Teacher’s Handbook by Judith L. Shrum and Eileen W. Glisan. By giving students an authentic text to read and by using a video to tell the story, we then have a context in which to discuss, analyze, and grammar with students.
Major findings:
- Positive: students were engaged and stayed on task the entire time.
- Negative: students do not naturally use the target language to converse unless given very specific instructions. At this level they cannot create with language.