Individual Presentation or Panel Title

" I am very bad at Spanish." A SoTL project to raise students' self-confidence as Spanish students.

Abstract

The vast majority of the students in Secondary education in Savannah do not continue studying Spanish after the number of years required to graduate. My proposal is that the students' low perceptions of their capabilities as students of Spanish is one of the main reason for their lack of motivation to continue studying the language. This presentation is a work on progress of a SoTL project. This project tries to prove if this trend changes by applying the ideas of developmental psychologist Carol Dweck about growth mindsets, and linguistic Stephen Krashen' s concept of the affective filter in second language acquisition. The experience was done with 77 freshmen and sophomore students of level 2 in a majority white population middle class High School. More than half of the students consider themselves “not good at languages.” After four weeks of the experience, the percentage show a 18% increase in their perceptions of their capabilities. This suggests that change is possible, but also that changes related to perceptions and emotions are slow, and difficult to measure in a short period of time. Other cultural and social factors that are not easily recognized by the population may influence students' academic choices. These factors include familiar ideological environment, failure to being exposed to international experiences, or the negative perception of the Latino community in the southeast of GA. All those negative factors should be considered when designing class methodology and contents in the teaching of Spanish, in order to encourage students to continue studying Spanish.

Presentation Description

The vast majority of the students in Secondary education in Savannah do not continue studying Spanish after the required number of years to graduate. My proposal is that the students' low perceptions of their capabilities as students of Spanish is one of the main reason for their lack of motivation to continue studying the language. This presentation is a work on progress of a SoTL experience, that tries to prove if this trend changes by applying the ideas of developmental psychologist Carol Dweck about growth mindsets, and linguistic Stephen Krashen' s concept of the affective filter in second language acquisition.

Keywords

Spanish language acquisition, motivation, drop, self-confidence, methodology, South, perception, prejudices

Publication Type and Release Option

Event

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" I am very bad at Spanish." A SoTL project to raise students' self-confidence as Spanish students.

The vast majority of the students in Secondary education in Savannah do not continue studying Spanish after the number of years required to graduate. My proposal is that the students' low perceptions of their capabilities as students of Spanish is one of the main reason for their lack of motivation to continue studying the language. This presentation is a work on progress of a SoTL project. This project tries to prove if this trend changes by applying the ideas of developmental psychologist Carol Dweck about growth mindsets, and linguistic Stephen Krashen' s concept of the affective filter in second language acquisition. The experience was done with 77 freshmen and sophomore students of level 2 in a majority white population middle class High School. More than half of the students consider themselves “not good at languages.” After four weeks of the experience, the percentage show a 18% increase in their perceptions of their capabilities. This suggests that change is possible, but also that changes related to perceptions and emotions are slow, and difficult to measure in a short period of time. Other cultural and social factors that are not easily recognized by the population may influence students' academic choices. These factors include familiar ideological environment, failure to being exposed to international experiences, or the negative perception of the Latino community in the southeast of GA. All those negative factors should be considered when designing class methodology and contents in the teaching of Spanish, in order to encourage students to continue studying Spanish.