Takaway from Observing Spanish Class Acquisition Strategies

I have learned a great deal from observing the professor's way of acquisition strategies for learning Spanish.  Much of it is what we have learned in class: recasting, bringing up errors, teacher involvement, working in pairs, creating motivation, making meaningful connections with everyday occurances to language.  Doing oral and written comprehension exercises, etc.

Learning Time and Vocabulary of College Subjects in Spanish

The class worked in pairs to ask what their major was, what time they left for school, what time their classes were, what time they got up in the morning, ate dinner, etc.  The instructor then asked students to mingle around to form questions on how to ask these things, then put it back in declarative form.  They then had to orally say what they themselves majored in, times they did certain things, etc. and also what their classmates schedules were.

Learning Basic Greetings in Spanish

The instructor wrote down how to ask someone for their name, tell their name and then how to say hello, goodbye, good morning, good afternoon and good night.  She then had the class mingle around introducing themselves, asking others for their name and saying the correct time of day.  She then wrote down how to ask someone how they are and what the correct respond would be.  Everyone again had to mingle around, ask others how they were and have them respond back.  She then went around and asked the class individually these questions, to interpret their comprehension.

Learning Strategies for Learning Numbers in Spanish

The instructor wrote numbers from one to 100 on the board.  She then asked everyone to work in pairs to write out their birthday. (she also did this when learning months of the year) The class had to orally recite what their birthdate was aloud with her recasting any errors.  The next class she handed out two dice.  Everyone rolled the dice and had to first add, substract multiply and divide the numbers, including the equal sign all in Spanish.  When the class reached the higher numbers 100+ she recited numbers aloud then the class had to write them down.  All of these exercises were very helpful to get to know the numbers, how to write the numbers and how to hear them then transfer them to writing them.

Acquisition Ideas for Use of Saber/Conocer

These two verb forms of "to know" are not used interchangeably in Spanish.  To help simplify this, the instructor had students make index cards one with each verb.  On them students wrote all the conjugations, then wrote what to look for in the sentence to help determine which verb to use.  In addition, the instructor gave a definition of what each verb meant then asked questions to class in addition to giving examples.  Students then worked in pairs, first writing a question down, then having the other student answer with "yo"  Student read their questions and responses aloud in class. Instructor corrected errors by recasting. Class then did exercises in textbook and for homework to further develop and reinforce knowledge of the verbs.  The following class, the instructor addressed any questions students' had.