Towards a Community-Centered Spanish Classroom

Abstract

As a foreign language teacher, I have struggled trying to answer two

questions at the end of each semester: I) how have I assisted my

students to become competent users of Spanish for real world purposes?

2) how have E contributed to instill in them a desire to explore and

participate in communities that are different from theirs? After having

laboriously shoveled what I believe to be necessary content materials into

a short time frame, I am often left wondering what my students retain

from their foreign language classroom experience. The goals of foreign

language instruction have been outlined as enabling students to not only

acquire useful language skills, but also "look beyond their customary

border, develop insight into their own language and culture, act with

greater awareness of self, of other cultures, and their own relationship to

those cultures, gain direct access to additional bodies of knowledge, and

participate more fully in the global community and marketplace."

However, the traditional classroom setting does not assure the attainment

of these broader benefits of foreign language learning.