They Took A Difficult Course In Spanish

Foreign Language Experience I come from a country, which is with high cultural values and great diversity. There are different languages spoken and different customs and traditions followed all over India. When I was in school, which was English medium school, we had Marathi and Hindi as our second language, Hindi was introduced from grade 3 and Marathi from grade 4, both these languages have almost similar script but there is a difference in the way we speak the language thus the difference in these two languages. It was easy for me to learn to read and write Hindi. It was very difficult for me to learn Marathi, my struggle worsened as my mother too was not able to help me as being from south of India she had never heard or spoke Marathi .It was compulsory in school to score same amount...  [Read more]

There is such a tremendous amount of marked regional diversity in Spain that one is almost dealing with a mini continent. Life on the costas - Spain’s huge coastline - differs greatly from that in the big cities, which in turn differs from life in the thousands of picturesque rural villages, which is again different from the ski slopes of Andora or Granada. Dispirit locations and circumstances are united in a profound love of life, sometimes combined with a slight disdain for work. Spaniards work to live, they do not live to work. Hence it is very easy to get swept up in a seemingly constant round of fiestas and festivals, music and dancing - eating well and drinking well being all part of pursuing the good life in the best of all possible worlds. Despite the fact that practically...  [Read more]

Should Students Be Allowed to Use Their Native Language in the Classroom When I first began teaching lessons during the TESOL Course I found myself almost automatically saying to the students, “English please,” after all it is an English class. However, I began to question myself about whether or not this was “correct” practice or if the students should in fact use their native language to assist them in the learning process. After doing some research I found the TESOL Law Code of Ethics. The Law of Ethics provided many vague and open-ended ideas. It suggested things along the lines of, “The foreign language teacher shall direct her whole professional effort to assist the students to develop his/her second language speaking ability.” It also mentions that TESOL teachers are to...  [Read more]