Yesterday I went to the last class of Rocio’s Level 2 Conversation/intermediate Conversation.

I was able to sit and talk to the class for a few minutes and they expressed their feelings about their progress with Spanish and there frustrations.  These students have just come from Level 2, Preterite and Pronouns.  This class focuses on the use of the simple past tense.  Students tell each other what the did yesterday?  and do a lot of activities where they read, write, and talk about what they did. All this is done only in Spanish of course with Rocio’s energetic guidance and with Antonieta as her assistant.

This is what people told me.  They are frustrated that they cannot understand and speak better.  The felt that they had improved their ability to talk about past events but native speakers still sounded like a jumble.  They all agreed that the greatest improvement was in their reading and pronunciation.  Being asked to read their stories a loud and discussing them helped them to gain more confidence in their speech.  Some felt frustrated and others quite pleased.  What we discovered is that adult learners seem to learn to read and write first, then reading a loud helps to connect the brain with the mouth and they begin to grasp concepts instead of individual words.  This is the purpose of this class and it is working. Here is a testimonial from on of the students.

“I took the class from Rocio and she was far and away the best instructor I’ve ever had. The class was fast and fun and I learned a great deal. The combination of solid instruction, class interaction, reading and writing meant that the concepts were strongly imprinted on my aging brain! I intend to take it again in the fall.”
Carolyn Patten

I had to remind the class that they have only taken three Spanish classes, Level 1, Level 2 and now Level 2 conversation.  Rome wasn’t built in a day.  Poco a poco.