We switched over to new instructors yesterday at Maryknoll. Señora Liliana and Señora Julia are my tutors for the next three weeks.
Every teacher has a different approach. Both Profesoras Liliana and Julia have made their methods known, and they are distinctive. For instance, both of them have had Joshua and I get up and go out of the classroom to practice our conversational skills in a real-life simulation. Thus, as we were learning how to give directions, Profesora Liliana had us lead her, as if she could not see, from the classroom to, say, the secretary’s or the language program coordinator’s office. (We were careful not to have her collide with any door or wall!) As we were learning how to use prepositional phrases to describe the relative position of objects, Profesora Julia guided us through the Maryknoll Mission Center grounds and had us answer how this tree, or that car, or that person, was situated.
I think that, based on feedback they must have received from Profesores Osvaldo and Óscar, Profesoras Liliana and Julia have made other pedagogical adjustments. For example, the teachers do not conduct their lessons simply by the (text)book we use. They encourage digressions into unprogrammed conversation. These excursions clarify grammatical questions, enhance our vocabulary, and build endurance for thinking and speaking Spanish. They also introduce cultural knowledge. Thus far this week, I find that both Joshua and I are veering into longer digressions with our teachers. Granted, they do much of the load bearing in our conversations, but we the students are picking up some more slack and sustaining more of the discussion. In fact, Joshua and I are often the ones unraveling new threads of conversation by a question or observation we offer. I take it this is a positive development. It keeps us engaged, it keeps us focused, it makes time pass quickly, and it reinforces the feeling we are making progress.
Speaking of cultural knowledge, I feel that our lessons will only become more saturated with context as we advance. Profesora Liliana raised the bar by assigning Joshua and me an article from the Spanish-language edition of National Geographic about the drying out of Lake Poopó in the Altiplano of Bolivia and other great lakes of the world. (Here it is in English.) We have also had conversations about violence against women in Bolivia, in preparation for the Wednesday weekly conference, which Profesora Liliana will lead on this very topic. I hope to give you a rundown tomorrow after the fact. But this evening I am to ponder two basic questions for in-class conversation immediately prior to the 11 a.m. conference. First, what does it mean to be a woman? Second, what does it mean to be a man? Pretty open-ended questions. What do you say, dear readers?
Every teacher has a different approach. Both Profesoras Liliana and Julia have made their methods known, and they are distinctive. For instance, both of them have had Joshua and I get up and go out of the classroom to practice our conversational skills in a real-life simulation. Thus, as we were learning how to give directions, Profesora Liliana had us lead her, as if she could not see, from the classroom to, say, the secretary’s or the language program coordinator’s office. (We were careful not to have her collide with any door or wall!) As we were learning how to use prepositional phrases to describe the relative position of objects, Profesora Julia guided us through the Maryknoll Mission Center grounds and had us answer how this tree, or that car, or that person, was situated.
I think that, based on feedback they must have received from Profesores Osvaldo and Óscar, Profesoras Liliana and Julia have made other pedagogical adjustments. For example, the teachers do not conduct their lessons simply by the (text)book we use. They encourage digressions into unprogrammed conversation. These excursions clarify grammatical questions, enhance our vocabulary, and build endurance for thinking and speaking Spanish. They also introduce cultural knowledge. Thus far this week, I find that both Joshua and I are veering into longer digressions with our teachers. Granted, they do much of the load bearing in our conversations, but we the students are picking up some more slack and sustaining more of the discussion. In fact, Joshua and I are often the ones unraveling new threads of conversation by a question or observation we offer. I take it this is a positive development. It keeps us engaged, it keeps us focused, it makes time pass quickly, and it reinforces the feeling we are making progress.
Speaking of cultural knowledge, I feel that our lessons will only become more saturated with context as we advance. Profesora Liliana raised the bar by assigning Joshua and me an article from the Spanish-language edition of National Geographic about the drying out of Lake Poopó in the Altiplano of Bolivia and other great lakes of the world. (Here it is in English.) We have also had conversations about violence against women in Bolivia, in preparation for the Wednesday weekly conference, which Profesora Liliana will lead on this very topic. I hope to give you a rundown tomorrow after the fact. But this evening I am to ponder two basic questions for in-class conversation immediately prior to the 11 a.m. conference. First, what does it mean to be a woman? Second, what does it mean to be a man? Pretty open-ended questions. What do you say, dear readers?
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