I follow a blog called "Spanish and Illinois" by Dr. Ann Abbott who teaches some really interesting Spanish courses at the university level, including classes for business and community service. This recent post shows part of where I hope to take Mosaic Spanish "classes" at the high school level once my students gain a little more proficiency. It discusses how she is making her business class more real - bringing real professionals into the classroom and having her students prepare real products for the real business world, rather than centering instruction around fictions created for practice. Some adjustments need to be made for Mosaic, since my students are not adults and are working from within a public school, but I think really engaging my students in the Spanish speaking world is doable.
One of my biggest struggles, though, is how often I feel like I say "when they get more proficient." This is an important balance because a real, Spanish-speaking businessperson probably wouldn't have a lot of patience for a 14-year-old that has a hard time even introducing herself. However, I need to figure out ways to keep it real even for my newbies. I think I'll start by sharing these big goals and visions of my own that I have for them and their Spanish so that they can see where I honestly believe they can go with their Spanish. Then, I want to provide them with as much information and as many avenues to explore Spanish locally and globally as I can so as to empower them to figure out how they want to authentically interact with a new multilingual world. And who knows? If I can inspire them to orient themselves toward a big goal like developing business relationships with Spanish speakers in the area, perhaps their proficiency grow way faster than in the classroom which by its nature has to be a more fabricated environment than the Mosaic one.
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