The world at times might seem like it is growing smaller and smaller. Inventions like planes and cars and radios have brought the world closer and foreign peoples to new lands. The Internet, too, has connected the modern era, allowing people across the world to communicate at the mere click of the button. It is in this world that the ability to speak a foreign language, and speak it proficiently becomes of increasing importance. And it is for these reasons that Lincoln Lutheran should both offer a middle school Spanish program and provide more outside-of-class help to struggling high school Spanish students, so that students at Lincoln Lutheran will have the proper skills to communicate in an ever-globalizing world.
Even though the world seems to be growing more and more connected, a person may still choose to not learn a language because it simply might not appear practical for them to do so. It may be that there aren’t any speakers of the target language for the student to talk to, or simply that “everyone speaks English anyway, so why learn it?” Either way, this simply isn’t the case. Locally (that is, in Nebraska), Spanish is a very practical language for someone in Nebraska to learn. There are currently 167,000 native Spanish-speakers in the state of Nebraska out of its 1.8 million people population (Tobias “Nebraska’s Hispanic/Latino Population Could Triple by 2050”). And according to the Omaha Center’s for Public Affairs Research, this number is only growing. It is predicted that by the year 2050, Spanish speakers will make up about 25 percent of the Nebraska population, which translates to about 538,900 speakers out of 2.24 million people in Nebraska (Tobias “Nebraska’s Hispanic/Latino Population Could Triple by 2050”).
If that number weren’t enough, the national statistics are even more convincing. As of summer 2015, the U.S. eclipsed Spain as the second largest Spanish speaking country (in terms of population) with 37 million Spanish speakers currently living in the United States (“17 Reasons Every American Should Learn Spanish.”). This correlates back to the Nebraska statistics, by the year 2050 America is predicted to eclipse even Mexico in terms of having the most Spanish speakers. On top of all of that, there are 329 million native speakers in the world (“17 Reasons Every American Should Learn Spanish.”). So, it is plain to see that when it comes to learning a language, Spanish is very applicable- both at the state and national levels.
Undoubtedly, with so many people speaking Spanish, knowing the language has to provide some advantage to a person able to learn it. Huffington Post’s 17 Reasons Every American Should Learn Spanish provides a menagerie of reasons to learn Spanish- 17 to be exact. Of all of them, perhaps the most prevalent is how it can help a person to be hired. In California alone, the demand for jobs of people who can speak Spanish fluently is high, but the state still has a (rather high) 10 percent unemployment rate. The state needs more people in the information sector, but is lacking in people who are skilled in government positions and can speak Spanish. So, in California, speaking Spanish certainly bolsters one’s chances of getting a job significantly.
Another boon to learning Spanish is that it can help one understand English better (“17 Reasons Every American Should Learn Spanish.”). It seems counterintuitive, but it makes sense in a way. By approaching a different language, one must familiarize themselves with the grammar structures of the target language. The simplest way to understand the construct of another language is through one’s own, and so important details in Spanish like Direct and Indirect objects help an English speaker understand the purpose of them in their native tongue.
When talking about Secondary Language Acquisition, or SLA, it is important to understand how the process works. Now, it should go without saying that everyone’s mind works a little bit differently. That means that some people can acquire more languages, speak more fluently, and do it in much less time than others, while on the other hand some people may just not be able to learn a language at all. Bearing those in mind, language acquisition research has determined that, in general, there are five stages that a person will go through when learning a language. The first of the five is known as the “Preproduction” stage. This stage usually takes place from about zero to six months of studying a language. In the Preproduction stage, the student still has minimal comprehension of the target language. As a result, a student will often shake their head “yes” or “no” in response to questions and will draw and point in an attempt to aid their lack of ability to verbalize (Hill and Björ).
Following immediately after the six month to one-year point, the student is in the “Early Production” stage. The student, while in general lacking, will begin to gain some comprehension during this stage. However, he or she will still not be fluent. There are 3 distinct verbal cues to signify this stage. The first is that the student will make extensive use of key words and phrases that are often the base of class activities. For example, in Lincoln Lutheran, the Spanish phrase “voy a” (I’m going to) is commonly used by students in this stage to express some action that will happen in the future, as opposed to the use of the future tense itself. And that fact lends itself to the next cue- in the Early Production stage; students will generally only use present tense verbs in talking, and this limits one’s ability to converse productively. The last verbal signifier of the Early Production stage is that students will often produce one to two word phrases in response to questions, again building off the idea of keywords (Hill and Björ).
For the next two years of study, the student is then classified as being in the “Speech Emergence” stage. And as the name suggests, students in this stage of language acquisition begin to form simple and perhaps even complex sentences. This is largely due in part to the fact that now the student has started to comprehend the language and the format and formulas the language follows. However, the student is still not very proficient in this stage. They will often make grammar and pronunciation errors when writing or speaking and jokes that are amusing in the target language, will often “go over the head” of the student (Hill and Björ).
The fourth stage is known as “Intermediate Fluency”, and it takes place from the third to fifth year of study of the target language. After years of study, the student should now have a fairly decent comprehension of the language of study. As a result, sentences are often more complex and contain verbs in a variety of tenses such as: subjunctive, past, imperfect, or future, just to name a few (this is not to say that all of these tenses are in the same sentence, as that would be very difficult to do). This is also corroborated in a study done that analyzed learning Spanish in a standard classroom setting versus studying abroad. The results of the study found that “At higher levels of ability, learners are able to use more complex grammatical elements without a corresponding increase in speech output”, which go along perfectly with what Hill and Björ are saying (Segalowitz, Norman, and Barbara F. Freed).
Then from five to seven years and on up, the student has reached the stage of “Advanced Fluency”, that is to say the language is more or less fully learned, and the student should have a level of fluency and comprehension near that of a native speaker (Hill and Björ). This last stage is especially hard to quantitatively measure because language acquisition is an ongoing process, especially in a non-native tongue.
The math on this is simple. According to The Stages of Secondary Language Acquisition it takes at a minimum five years to develop a passable amount of fluency. Currently at Lincoln Lutheran, students are only offered classes up to Spanish 4, or four years of learning. Since the primary goal of learning a language is fluency, the research shows that students at Lincoln Lutheran who learn at an average rate won’ achieve fluency while in High School. The easiest and perhaps most efficient way to solve this would be to create an optional Middle School curriculum, so that students who are so inclined can pursue and advanced pace of study in Spanish.
In a study conducted by Segalowitz, Norman, and Barbara F. Freed also provided some insight as to what else could help a student in the Speech Emergence stage of SLA. Following along with a student being in Speech Emergence, the study recommends the use of “key content” words (Segalowitz, Norman, and Barbara F. Freed). Remember, the Speech Emergence stage is characterized by the use of key phrases and words (Hill and Björ). The study found, though, that the use of these key words helps non-native speakers who started learning after the age of 14- the average high school freshman- retain vocabulary better. But note, the age at which repetitive usage of key phrases becomes beneficial is 14, and by adding a middle school curriculum, this can be circumvented and students’ learning will be more similar to those who learn the language at home.
Naturally, a large amount of learning a second language is done in the classroom. Nebraska is no exception to that, and thankfully, the “Nebraska K-12 Foreign Language Framework” is readily available online. What this means is that people can easily see the guidelines that the state of Nebraska has laid out for teachers of Foreign Languages. The Frameworks help guide teachers in multiple facets by setting goals, setting standards, and providing progress indicators. These Frameworks also contain examples for teachers to use in class, sample learning scenarios for teachers to analyze, and sample assessments for teachers to model their own off of. So while the Nebraska Foreign Language Frameworks provide guidance, they do still leave a lot to the teacher’s discretion. Perhaps most importantly, or at least most pertinent to Secondary Language Acquisition, are the five goals that the Framework sets up. After all, there must be some end game in mind when learning a language.
The first goal is rather obviously to “Communicate in a Language other than English” (Blair, et. al). The Frameworks provide three “stages” or “tiers” so to speak of this goal. The first level is to have “students engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.” This effectively does two things- first it says that communication is of the utmost importance. But secondly, it defines what communication is, or at least communication that should be sought after. Communication, according to the Framework in its most basic form is to exchange information, especially about the human experience. The second level of goal one is to have students be able to read and write the target language, thus expanding their ability to communicate. The third tier of goal one is to progress into more abstract forms of communications (Blair, et.al). Specifically, the Framework wants students to “convey information, concepts, and ideas to listeners and readers for a variety of purposes.” This is the third tier because typically, abstract thought takes more advanced language skills.
The second goal, only containing two tiers, is to “Gain Knowledge and Understanding of other Cultures” (Blair, et.al). It should go without saying that foreign languages are accompanied by foreign cultures. So an important, and often useful, part of learning a language is to learn about the culture of the language. The first tier says that “students should demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the perspectives and practices of cultures studied and use this knowledge to interact effectively in cultural contexts” showing the importance of culture. And while it is important at the base to understand a culture, the second tier of goal two aims for positive thinking about the given culture. It specifically wants, “Students to demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the perspectives and products/ contributions of the cultures studied.” (Blair, et. al) It is good to understand a culture, but then understanding the contributions it’s made to the world is only beneficial.
The third goal is a common education goal. It is to “Connect [foreign languages] to with other disciplines and acquire information.” (Blair, et.al) Another two-tiered goal, this goal seeks to have SLA bolstered by other subjects. The first tier wants “Students reinforce and further knowledge of other disciplines through foreign languages. “An example of this would be to imagine that a history is class is learning about Christopher Columbus. This goal says that to learn about him in Spanish class would be beneficial for the learning of both subjects. The other tier of this goal is for “Students to acquire information and perspectives through authentic materials in the foreign languages and within the cultures.” (Blair, et. al). Learning Spanish or Russian or Greek is a good thing, but this argues that to read Miguel de Cervantes, Dostoevsky, or Aristotle helps the study of both the writing and the language itself.
The fourth goal laid out by the Framework is to have students “Develop insight into the nature of Language and Culture.” (Blair, et.al). That is to say, it is important for students of a language to make connections between the language and culture. The third and last of the two-tiered goals, the first one wants “Students to recognize that different languages use different patterns to communicate and can apply this knowledge to their own language.” (Blair, et. al) This makes a great connection back to how learning a foreign language can actually help a student learn their native tongue better as well. The second tier of goal four is for students to “recognize that cultures use different patterns of interaction and can apply this knowledge to their own culture” which is to say that learning about other languages and cultures can help us to see that there are similarities between ourselves and others (Blair, et.al).
The fifth and last goal of the Framework is the true endgame of learning a language- to “Participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world.” (Blair, et.al) One of the most beautiful things about learning a language is that it does open so many doors for a person. And by studying both the target language and culture, one is prepared to participate on a potentially global level in a multilingual community. The single tier of this goal is simple. It is for “Students use the language both within and beyond the school setting for a variety of purposes.” (Blair, et.al) The Framework understands the global nature of language and as such desires for Nebraska students to use and develop the skills learned in the classroom to make connections for all sorts of purposes; this is perhaps the most noble aspect of SLA.
When it comes to the classroom, there are a variety of different ways that a teacher may approach teaching a foreign language. As mentioned above, the Nebraska Frameworks provide guidelines for teachers and goals, but they do not say exactly how a teacher has to go about running their classroom. However, there appears to be something to a classroom procedure known as the “Orbital Experience”. For those who don’t know, the Orbital Experience is a methodology of teaching a foreign language, in this scientific study, it was a Spanish class (Gomez, et. al). The study was conducted in a Spanish class of 41 students, so that makes it a comparable class size to those at Lincoln Lutheran (around 25-30 students). The way an orbital experience works is like this: students break off into small groups, around five or six students. Each is allowed to research a topic they are interested in or passionate about and then presents to their small groups in Spanish.
The study itself outlines in particular the story of a baseball player at the high school where the Orbital Experiences take place. It details how he tells “in halting Spanish” shares the highlight of his baseball career: pitching a no hitter. Despite the impressiveness of this feat, he still seems “shy and sheepish” (Gomez, et. al). The study continues to outline how only one person at his group was aware of the feat, but that everyone congratulated him on his accomplishment and the student later went on to say how it made him feel good that other people took an interest in what he did.
In fact, that is one of the main goals of an Orbital Experience- to provide a sense of community and accomplishment (Gomez, et. al). A survey was presented to the students after the study was done to help with data analysis. Overwhelmingly, the students gave positive feedback about the experience. Several students noted how “many of their peers’ Spanish skills improved from the first to second round of Orbitals.” And many others noted how it was easy to continue talking in Spanish because it was a topic that they were passionate about (Gomez, et. al). Also, the data analysis at the end of the study found that the scope of topics increased from one round of Orbitals to the next, pointing to a growing sense of comfortableness and mastery of Spanish.
Now, this isn’t to say that Lincoln Lutheran needs to exactly copy the Orbital Experience step-by-step. But, it is what is at the heart of the Orbital Experience that is really important. The study proved that by giving students the ability to learn and present about what they wanted to, learning was increased as well as fluency. Going forward, this is something that could easily apply to all classes, because the study shows that the more say a student has in his or her learning, the more they will benefit.
All-in-all, SLA is no easy feat, nor is everyone meant to be bilingual or multilingual- much like how not everyone is meant to be a carpenter, an accountant, or any of the multitude of professions and hobbies available to people. But, the world is globalizing and becoming connected. The plane, Internet, and countless other inventions have brought the world closer together. It is because of this, providing strong SLA class environments and stressing the importance of SLA is a necessary task that must be undertook to help ensure the quality of the international and local community.
Works Cited
Blair, Marie, et al. “Nebraska K-12 Foreign Language Frameworks.” Ed. Gordon
Culver. education.ne.gov. Nebraska Department of Education, 1996. Web. 30
Mar. 2016
Gomez, Diane, Joan Gujarati, and Rick Heckendorn. “The Orbital Experience: Building Community Through Communication And Connections In High School Spanish Classes.” American Secondary Education 41.1 (2012): 96. MasterFILE Complete. Web. 9 Mar. 2016.
Hill, Jane D and Björ, Cynthia L. “Classroom Instruction That Works with English Language Learners Facilitator’s Guide”. The Stages of Second Language Acquisition. Web. 06 Mar. 2016
Planas, Roque. “17 Reasons Every American Should Learn Spanish.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 04 Nov. 2012. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
Segalowitz, Norman, and Barbara F. Freed. “CONTEXT, CONTACT, AND COGNITION IN ORAL FLUENCY ACQUISITION: Learning Spanish in At Home and Study Abroad Contexts.” Studies in Second Language Acquisition Stud. Sec. Lang. Acq. 26.02 (2004). Web.
Tobias, Mike “Nebraska’s Hispanic/Latino Population Could Triple by 2050.” Nebraska’s Hispanic/Latino Population Could Triple by 2050. NET, Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
Nolan Schad 