Reflecitve Journal - "Grammar Teaching"

Prior to these readings I was quite unaware of a couple of things; the first one
being the profound importance that a teacher has on his/her students. As a current
student, I tend to think that it is the student(s) who make the class but in reality, it is
the teacher. Introducing Grammar and Vocabulary, by Norma Burton, made me
realize an essential aspect as a future teacher of Spanish. This being that how much
your students understand, what they understand, and what they say is based on
what you provide to your students. In order for your input to be comprehensible,
students need to understand what you are saying and/or giving to them. Another
realization that I came across while reading Burtons article was that students
acquire knowledge through repetition. Therefore, it is very important that, when
teaching, you utilize the vocabulary and the grammar that you want your students
to utilize. As Burton explains, students will remember what you say over what you
tell them to say. Additionally, I became aware of the variety of input sources that
one, as a teacher, can incorporate grammar and vocabulary to. This allows students
to acquire and understand such structures. I would utilize a variety of oral sources
of input. Doing so, I believe, would make students interested in what is being said
and it would also strengthen their listening, communication, and recall skills.

The second thing I was unaware of prior to these readings was the
awareness that resides in regards to the problem of teaching and learning grammar.
As a certified Level 1 & 2 Spanish tutor, I often have students who complain about
how boring it is to learn a language. Additionally, they complain about the way in
which teachers teach grammar. I used to think that students were just complaining
and/or being lazy and that there was only one way of teaching grammar. However,
after these readings, I now know that there are a variety of ways to teach grammar
and that doing so, can actually be fun for teachers and students. Thus, as a future
teacher of Spanish, I hope to teach in a more modern way, with the influences of
recent theoretical work. This means that I believe that students are capable of
learning grammar through listening, reading, and communicating. In fact, this is how
I learned French. More specifically, my teacher taught us how to write after we
completed multiple units on listening, reading, and communication. Therefore, I
believe that writing came easily to my classmates and I. By the time we had to write,
we were quite familiarized with grammar rules.

Overall, I think it is very important to keep in mind that, as future teachers,
we are facilitators of learning and acquisition. It is important that we provide
students the opportunity to learn grammar and vocabulary in fun and interactive
ways. I would incorporate the Communicative Competence model when teaching
Spanish because it balances the old and the new way of teaching grammar. The
more I tutor students, the more I believe its helpful to incorporate grammar while
teaching students the larger context of using language. By facilitating learning,
acquisition, and helping students develop procedural knowledge, students will
develop, sustain, and strengthen their abilities in the language.