Class Puts Spanish First, Grammar a Distant Second

CARPENTERSVILLE—Ah, the memories of Spanish class: Irregular verbs; indefinite articles; prepositional phrases; and those cheesy, repetitious dialogues.

It’s enough to make a person want to forget.

That’s why Judy Kwiat’s students won’t be bothered with all of that formality, instead they’ll learn with her method.

A dozen adults, including Carpentersville-based School District 300 administrators, teachers and parents, recently discovered that Spanish can be fun, and understood, at the same time, in Kwiat’s class.

The 10 weekly sessions employed activities and strategies that are effective with children trying to learn a second language, according to Kwiat, District 300 site school improvement director.

Basically, Kwiat used conversation rather than the grammar approach common in high school and college courses.

“I really liked it. It was kind of a laid-back atmosphere, which made learning easier,” said Jennifer Henk, a 6th-grade special-education teacher at Carpentersville Middle School.

For Henk, the class served as a refresher, because she had four years of Spanish in high school. Her decision to brush up on the language was prompted by the many new Spanish-speaking students enrolling in her school, as well as the district.

In fact, addressing the need of the growing Spanish-speaking community was the impetus behind Kwiat’s class.

When dealing with immigrant children, or their parents, it’s helpful for teachers and administrators to be able to communicate, even with the most basic phrases, she said.

Kwiat’s teaching method also familiarized her adult class with a program currently being conducted at two area schools, where kindergartners and 1st and 2nd graders are learning second languages. But in those classrooms, half are English-speaking and the other half are Spanish-speaking, each learning the other’s language.

Similar to the dual language program, Kwiat relies on conversation–she speaks only in Spanish to her students–to teach her lessons.

Using a course notebook filled with children’s stories, songs and illustrations, Kwiat talked and sang her way through the 10 weeks and left out the tedious grammar rules–although that information was available in printed form if a student desired to learn it.

The course, which was taught with Maria Esther Sanchez, a District 300 administrative assistant, was requested by Jane Schumacher, assistant superintendent for professional development.

“Language should be acquired naturally, not formally,” Kwiat said. “Fewer than 2 percent that learn the formal way become proficient in the language.”



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