The Power of Play in the Spanish Classroom: From Early Childhood Education to Pre-adolescence<

The Power of Play in the Spanish Classroom: From Early Childhood Education to Pre-adolescence

In my journey as a teacher, I have primarily been an early childhood educator. When I began my path as a Spanish teacher, my previous experience with young children has always been useful to me. In an early childhood classroom, children usually do not write or read; most of the activities carried out are through games, and the ways of incorporating new learning are oral and highly visual. Furthermore, great importance is placed on the development of oral communication skills, as well as on interaction while communicating with peers and adults in real, everyday communicative situations.

When I found myself in an ELE (Spanish as a Foreign Language) classroom for the first time, I had to hold on to the things I knew how to do, and, as I have already explained, what I knew were games, songs, and playful activities. I realized during that course that the playful component is not only a highly important aspect in a Spanish as a Foreign Language class, but it also forms part of my teaching and the way I understand the learning process. In the course I teach, I encounter pre-teens who are very different from the early childhood children I am used to teaching and guiding.

However, through these years of experience, I have realized that pre-teens, too, when they are playing while learning a language and are in a comfortable and safe environment, forget about the mistakes they make when they speak; their desire to participate is greater than their concern about making an error. Another benefit of games in the classroom is the creation of bonds. A bond of camaraderie is created both among the students and with the teacher, which facilitates the acquisition of content and means that the children do not come to class just because they are forced to attend, but because they wonder what will happen in that session. As Nevado (2008: 2) states:

"We teachers enter this world pleasantly discovering that 'one learns by playing in class,' and not only that, but everything that play generates around it greatly facilitates the learning process and classroom relationships, boosting integration and group cohesion."