Spanish students voices

1
Spanish students voices

• The possibilities of a critical pedagogy and
  empowering effects on motivation

2
Why motivation?

• Students perceptions and beliefs are social
  enactments with unique ingredients
• Tacit factors influence what students do and what
  happens in lessons
• Factors other than ability influence students
  learning
• Factors other than what they know or what the
  teacher knows influence students learning too

3
Students role in learning

• For students to be able to be effective learners
  they need to be able to take part effectively in
  their learning, their lessons, their education
  and their lives
• For students to play an active role in their
  learning, and in their world there needs to be a
  shift in powers (Shor 2004) and space for
  inclusivity

4
Student voice

• "Student voice is the active opportunity for
  students to express their opinions and make
  decisions regarding the planning, implementation,
  and evaluation of their learning experiences.
  (Rogers 2005)

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Critical Pedagogy

• Deconstruction of language
• Conscientizaçao (Freire 1979)
• Teacher and student dialogue (Smyth 2001)
• Reflection and action (Freire 1994)
• Problem posing (Freire 1979 Shor 1992 Leonard
  in McLaren Leonard 2004)

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The influence of motivation

• Individuals make dispositional and environmental
  responses
• Behavior is influenced by perceptions of
  task/ability self efficacy and performance
  outcome expectancy (Askell-Williams 2000)
• Individuals are driven by the goals they pursue
  in their thoughts and actions ( Winne 1990,
  p.297)
• Intellectual processing is enhanced by affect and
  the energizing role that it plays (Piaget
  1981 in Hidi 1990, p. 549)
• More recent research (Hidi 1990) identifies that
  interest is an energizing factor in learning
• Interests can tell us about
• the direction of the agents own growth, and is
  therefore, imperiously demanded, if the agent is
  to be(Dewey 1913, p.6)

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Aspects of motivation

• Interests (in topics, activities/processes
  preferred)
• Attributions (explanations)
• Goals (students aims)
• Efficacy (how confident they feel about their
  abilities and output in Spanish)
• Reflections on students learning and performance
  in Spanish language/culture learning

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Socio-cognitive and critical perspective
Career Stages Teacher Philosophy Teacher
Morale Context
Principals Teachers Students Parents Local
community Beliefs/ Backgrounds
Individual Situational Interest (Hidi 1991)
Banking System of Education Monolingual
Mindset Overt promotion of Asian Languages
Economic rationale
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The students in this survey

• Five Schools
• Language is compulsory in year 8 and 9 (3
  schools)
• Language is optional (2 schools)
• Sample
• 92 Students
• 68 Females
• 41 Males
• Group size range (from 6 to 33 students)
• Students can choose languages (8-2)

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Questions

• Do you think learning Spanish is interesting?
• What parts of learning Spanish are/are not
  interesting to you?
• What could Spanish teachers do to make learning
  Spanish more interesting for you?
• What could you do to?
• Please list the topics that interest you most
  /least when learning Spanish.
• Do you believe you will continue learning Spanish
  till year 12?
• Please explain in as much detail as possible, the
  reasons for why you may or may not continue your
  study of Spanish

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(No Transcript)
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Interesting parts of Spanish(frequencies)

• Culture (101)
• The Language (87)
• Classroom Activities (26)
• Learning (14)
• Affective statements (11)
• Travel (5)
• Topics (3)

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Sophisticated responses

• It intrigues me not only as a language but as a
  culture
• Pronunciation . Because its challenging for not
  just me but for most people
• Being challenged to learn new words, phrases
  and alphabets
• Projects are good because you learn from them
• The language is interesting and complex
• Being able to understand a culture interests me.
  Learning Spanish helps me understand not only one
  culture but many

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What doesnt interest students?(frequencies)

• Language (47)
• Book work (19)
• Aspects of culture (12
• Activities (10)
• Teacher behaviour (8)
• Repetitive work (8)
• Tests (7)
• Everything (7)

• Nothing, I find it interesting (4)
• Not sure (3)
• Homework (3)
• Worksheets (3)
• Difficulty (2)

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Sophisticated responses

• Learning verbs isnt interesting but you need
  them
• When lessons involve non-stop grammatical
  learning and you can only learn so much
• When I began Spanish I didnt think it was
  important and now Im quite interested in
  continuing in the future?
• not learning about the culture
• I dont believe that Spanish will be something I
  need later on in life but the teacher that Ive
  had over the past two years has made it
  interesting
• Learning things over and over. I guess its in
  case you forget
• I hate it when you dont get to do things with
  the language
• I dont think Spanish is not interesting but
  sometimes I get bored in class

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Spanish students suggestions to make learning
Spanish more interesting

• Do more work that involves us
• More cooking
• I would definitely say that teachers need to do
  more creative things with their students, Spanish
  isnt all about learning verbs and doing
  worksheets, you need to learn more about the
  culture as well
• Spanish exchanges should be organised each year
• I think they should ask what we want to learn
  one lesson
• Teachers should want kids to ask questions
• Spanish should be more important to schools so
  that people can learn it too

17
Students views about possibilities for teaching

• Make learning Spanish practical (26)
• Vary approach and strategies (14)
• Include games that help make learning difficult
  or boring things fun (13)
• Use more collaborative work/tasks in the language
  (4)
• Consider student interest (2)
• Speak to us in Spanish (4)

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Students views about what they can do to make
Spanish more interesting

• Share ideas/ views with the teacher (9)
• Be involved/participate more (9)
• Pay attention/ concentrate more (8)
• Try harder/apply myself (6)
• Not sure (6)
• Better attitude (6)
• Engage in own research/external work (4)
• Study more (3)
• Speak more in Spanish (3)
• Take more interest (3)
• Think of long term goals (1)
• Not miss lessons (1)

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These beliefs can influence language learning

• I dont know what really appeals most about
  Spanish to me, I just really enjoy learning it
• I dont know Im just a student
• learning about the culture, although, I dont
  see it being particularly useful in the future
• I dont really see myself needing to learn
  Spanish in order to secure a job that interests
  me however, I am very interested in
  travelling22 countries speak SpanishIm
  interested in a number of other senior subjects
  and because of the stresses associated with
  learning a whole new language, I would prefer to
  focus on my passions
• Having a language on your CV looks great it
  will give me the cutting edge
• (will continue if) if my grades are good, if I
  enjoy it and it doesnt get boring
• I will continue because I find it interesting and
  a challenge

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These beliefs can influence language learning

• Students

• Teachers

• Boring (12) Hate it (5)
• Subject difficulty (9)
• Demands in Yr 12 (2)
• Losing interest (10)
• Poor grades (2)
• Other subject interests (13)
• Lessons dont motivate me (1)
• Not needed for future(5)
• Teaching (7)
• Cant speak it well (1)
• Better at other language (1)
• Not important to me (1)
• Dont like it (2)
• Transfer of institution (1)
• Wont be travelling (1)

• Poor parental support (4)
• Subject choice (5)
• Other teachers/ SSOs (3)
• Inequitable treatment of languages in schools (3)
• Lack of school support (2)
• Families wont travel (2)
• Schools culture (1)
• Perceptions of subject difficulty (2)
• Students choice easy subjects (2)
• Future professions (1)
• University requirements (1)
• Not valued in curriculum (1)
• Lack of understanding of purpose of learning (2)
• Lack of resources (1) Class sizes (1)
• The community (1)
• Fear of SACE exam (1)

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Student reflections

• Learning about a different culture and being
  able to understand it interests me but through
  learning Spanish I am not learning how to
  understand one other culture but many others
  which is really great
• It is important to be able to speak in another
  language, learn the differences between English
  and Spanish and put sentences together and feel
  confident to speak, write or understand Spanish

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• When I began Spanish I didnt think it was
  important and now Im quite interested in
  continuing in the future

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Thank you for sharing
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