Experiences to consider in preparing the Spanish teachers’ course final project<

Experiences to consider in preparing the Spanish teachers’ course final project

My name is Lorena Rodríguez, a few months ago I decided to do this course because I would like to work as a Spanish teacher abroad, in Italy to be precise. It is a country that fascinates me, and I think that it would be wonderful to dedicate myself to teaching my language there, as I am very proud of it.

I have often heard (mostly on travel programmes) that there are many Spaniards that go to any old country and overnight start working as Spanish teachers due to the simple fact that they are native speakers. I am one of those who think that being a native speaker is very important, but it is not the key thing when it comes to being a teacher. To be a teacher one needs to have a certain level of preparation, at least a basic level, as it is likely that we will later find ourselves faced with pupils who ask us questions and who ponder things that we have never stopped to think about as native speakers. It may be that we are not able to answer their queries and to pass on our knowledge to them. This has happened to me, and perhaps to you too (if you have friends or know people abroad). More than once they have asked me “why is this said like this in Spanish?”, “why is it said like this and not in another way?” and I have thought to myself “I have no idea, it has never occurred to me” and I dislike answering “don´t keep on worrying about it, it is that way and that´s that, every language has its quirks.”

This is one of the reasons that made me think and realise that I would always like to be prepared so that I always have the answer that the student is looking for and don’t find myself in that uncomfortable situation again. I too am, and have been, a foreign languages student, and I know how rewarding it is to have good teachers or people who always give you an explanation and the answer that you are looking for, and I want to do this for my students.

Sometimes we fall into the trap of thinking that because we use our language on a daily basis, because we have been studying it all our lives, and we have a certain level of education (Bachelors, Masters, Modules, Degrees, etc.) which perhaps has nothing to do with teaching or a more specific study of the language, we think that it gives us the "power" to pass it to others and do it better than someone who does have dedicated training but is not a native speaker. We do not realise that maybe that person has reflected, has found out about things, has studied and is more careful when using the language correctly than we are, that sometimes we even make mistakes without realising it because we are confident in ourselves. I believe that thinking this way downplays the importance of the work of many people who have dedicated time and effort into preparing properly.

I admit that at first I thought like this and I was convinced that finishing my degree meant that I now had a correct grasp of the language, but what I never thought was that passing on this knowledge and explaining the most basic of things about my own language to foreign people could be such a hard task. Thanks to this course I have realised that the job of being a Spanish teacher is hard and we should not take it lightly.

Unfortunately, I still can´t do my final project based on my experience as a teacher because I haven´t worked as a teacher as yet, but I am sure that my time as a student will help me a great deal when doing it or at least it will give me general ideas as to what the students´ needs are and from there to set out my goals as a teacher. Do you agree?