How to Begin Teaching Spanish
Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the United States, especially in states such as California and Texas, which are close to the Southern border. The ability to speak Spanish is considered an important job skill in such places. Teaching Spanish to others can be a fun and exciting way to learn more about the language yourself and help others. Books and rote memorization work, but there are many other methods to learn the language that are much more effective.
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Things You'll Need
- Playing cards
- Common household items
- Bingo cards
- Uno cards
- Computer games
- Rock-N-Learn program
Instructions
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Fun and Learning
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Music is a great way to help learn a new language. The Rock and Learn company has a two-volume set of Spanish language tapes and CDs that comes with a booklet for maximum impact. The company gives you the right to reproduce the booklet for multiple students.
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Playing a game can be an effective way to learn. The DLTK website (See Resources below) has bingo games that are printable with colors, shapes, numbers, letters and common household objects, such as furniture. These can be printed and used in a game where the words are called only in Spanish.
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Play card games such as UNO where you must pronounce the colors and numbers of the cards in Spanish before you are allowed to play the card.
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Watch familiar movies, but change the language to Spanish. The more the class watches the movie, the more words students will pick up each time they watch it.
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Play Spanish computer games such as KidSpeak and Jump Start Spanish. These are fun and easy ways to help children pick up a new language.
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Collect common household objects such a combs, toothbrushes and small plastic food toys. Put these in a sack, and have the students pull objects from the bag. They must name the item in Spanish, or else they're out of the game.
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Set up role playing scenarios such as ordering in a restaurant, going shopping and other common errands to be enacted only in Spanish.
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Check out English as a Second Language websites for game ideas, lesson plans and more. Then just take the ideas and convert them for your own use for Spanish. Most of these websites are free.
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Tips & Warnings
Make sure your program has good pronunciation. This is important in teaching the language basics correctly.
