How learning Spanish transformed me into a better English teacher

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Growing up in Texas, I’ve always been enrolled in a Spanish Class. It wasn’t until I became an adult that I realized I took those classes for granted. So, last year, I decided to seriously work towards learning Spanish. Little did I know that while pushing towards this goal, I also became a better teacher because it gave me a glimpse of what my students struggle with daily. Here are some key skills I’ve developed during this journey:

Empathy

While learning a new language, frustration is a feeling that occurs often. The frustration often comes from forgetting a word or concept you already knew (think brain fart). As an adult, I have the emotional ability to give myself grace and gentle reminders. However, most children are still developing emotional vocabulary around grace and empathy. When many students struggle, they start to either blame themselves or others, shut down, or turn into the “class clown” to redirect attention elsewhere.

With this new perspective, my team and I will continue building our students academically and socio-emotionally. We love to affirm and encourage students throughout the lesson so they learn how to motivate themselves independently. My favorite part of my job is getting to watch my students grow. So, during a post-diagnostic (where we reassess students to check their growth), I like to show students how they were reading before and after so they can see visual progressions of their growth. Grace and empathy are as important as the lesson, so we will continue intertwining them into our daily sessions.

Decoding (Sounding out words)

While I was learning Spanish, I recognized that Spanish and English have similar vernaculars because they both have Latin origins. English readers can decode or sound out Spanish words using the same strategies. Average adult readers don’t think about decoding skills because they read using memorization.

After mastering the art of reading, most adults read fast because they read often and recognize familiar words and sounds. However, children who are beginning readers don’t have as many reading years under their belts, so they have to rely on their decoding skills. Children don’t like to hear themselves struggle with a word, so instead, some children attempt to memorize words so they don’t have to decode.

Here’s a visual from my 6th grade PE class to explain:

Every week in PE, we had to run “the loop,” a mile-long trail around our school. As a 6th grader who didn’t enjoy running or have a good form of running, I would cut across the school field to make the loop shorter and finish faster when the coach wasn’t looking. I was focused on speed and finishing with the faster students instead of actually working on my running technique to improve my stamina and time.

I see this all the time in the classroom. Students choose to speed read with memorization instead of slowing down on words and reading each sound out loud. Those speedy readers want to read “fast” so they try to guess words instead of decoding them sound by sound. When students guess words instead of decoding them, they will read faster but inaccurately, thus causing future comprehension problems. 

(Like when I ran so fast, I made the track team and came in second to last place in the 800-meter run, because I didn’t take the time to develop my skills).

This has solidified our program that constantly develops decoding in all of our students because it is a skill they will need, even as they grow into adult readers.

Consistency

I try to stay within the language every day. That means I make Spanish a part of my daily routine. I am consistent with my lessons and my homework. Sometimes, I get busy and have to reschedule classes. However, when I am consistent, I feel more prepared for each class and can build on what we learned in the previous lesson. 

Tutoring is the same way. The more consistent you are with learning, the easier it will become. Reading and math are mental muscles; if not exercised daily, they will slowly deteriorate.

Vocabulary Acquisition and Context Clues

Learning new vocabulary is helpful, but applying it is where authentic learning and transformation occur because we must commit it to memory. I’ve known this as a teacher, but I am re-experiencing it as I progress through my Spanish classes. The best way to learn new vocabulary is by applying it, hearing it, and reading it in various ways. When I learn a new word, I write down both the word and the sentence I heard it in to confirm its’ use in context. 

After experiencing the results (getting excited to use new words and phrases correctly), I began to recreate the use of context clues in my classes:

Watch the YouTube short to see this in action!

How I teach my students new vocabulary:

1. I pick a passage related to my student’s background and interest (We used Starwars for the example below).
2. I select any “tricky” or less familiar words from that text. 
3. I develop sentences using those words with a lot of context around their meaning.
4. My students read the sentence with the word in it, and then I prompt them to infer its meaning using the context in the sentence.
5. I confirm their understanding or guide them toward correctly using the word.
6. Ask them to apply it by writing three sentences using three of the new vocabulary words learned.

This step-by-step guide shows how much thought goes into my program’s vocabulary development skills. It takes a lot of time, but the results are worth it.

I wrote this to encourage us as parents, educators, and mentors to empathize with our students struggling with reading. The best way to do that is to try to learn something new; it will truly be a humbling experience and, hopefully, provide you with emotional communication tools to relate to a child struggling to improve their skills academically. I encourage you to sharpen your empathy skills and foster your child’s academic growth with a mentality of grace.