D-Dan
- 2012-05-01
I have taught in many South American schools and all of my students spoke to me in Spanish outside of the classroom. I have met a few South Americans who have pretended not to be able to speak Spanish. I think this is down to a number of reasons, but the main one being snobbery. They like to push a sense of superiority over their Spanish counterparts, in some cases ignoring their own language to do this. A lot of Latin Americans seem to think that the USA is the be all and end all and if they can speak the English language then their worries will be over. Accept the fact that they just don't want to speak to you in Spanish and get in with teaching English. Simple.
Hi! I'm a sophomore in college majoring in Spanish Education and getting certified to teach ESL. I've noticed with a LOT of the ESL students I work with, they will refuse to speak Spanish to me or sometimes even pretend they don't know it. If I ask them for clarification on how to say or pronounce something, they'll tell me, in English, that they don't know. But if I continue working with the same students for awhile, eventually they will acknowledge the language and sometimes converse with me in it, although still hesitantly. From personal experience it seems like ESL students don't like to speak their native language with native speakers of another language until they have grown to trust the person. It could also be because speaking Spanish in the school environment is taking the language completely out of context for them. I was wondering if any ESL teachers have noticed this pattern with their students at all?