For years, the CHS Spanish department has maintained a prominent place as part of the essential education CHS has to offer to its students. However, the Spanish department has not always remained consistently up to par; in fact, the quality of foreign language education has significantly degenerated. In a survey conducted by the Wolfpacket, of students who are or have been in the Spanish program, 76% of the 30 random students polled reported they were not satisfied with the Spanish program at CHS. Of various issues, unfairness of the class tests, orals, and presentations arise in the discussion of the quality of foreign language classes.

Teachers often do not do their part to prepare their students for exams. Students who have completed three years of Spanish and are starting AP/IB Spanish 4 are unfairly expected by their teachers to be prepared for the formidable AP and IB Spanish exams at the end of the school year. Since the students have passed three years of Spanish education already, teachers wrongly assume they are able to pass the class final exams. However, that is not always the case for these students. They simply cannot teach themselves Spanish, especially at the fourth-year level, by independent studying. The teachers lack initiative when it comes to properly preparing each student for the final tests in their fourth year of Spanish. They tend to hand out large packets with practice on concepts, but leave students on their own to complete it. This is unhelpful as students mindlessly complete this for a good grade but never actually understand the concepts needed to pass later on. This completely neglects the value that is supposed to be added by the fourth year of Spanish and essentially makes the class pointless. If teachers fail to do their jobs, many students fail to succeed on the tests.

In addition to unhelpful teachers, there are several problems with the class tests. The exams are obsolete, based on past versions from different teachers that ultimately contradict whatever the students have learned. Furthermore, the tests are extremely similar for each class despite every teacher having a different style of teaching. They are terribly unfair for the students who are not properly prepared to take tests that were not designed by their own teacher. As a result, students encounter vocabulary, phrases, and language on the tests that they have never seen before nor expected to see in the first place. Students cannot possibly pass a test that includes subjects they have never learned before. Exams should be designed by the teachers, individually, based on their own teaching style. Students would then be better prepared and would be given a fair chance at passing the test. Students will also be readily prepared for Spanish exams at the end of their fourth year.

In spite of the unfair testing, grades for accentuation in oral presentations are often no better. When grading, the presentation and oral accuracy are weighed more than the actual content of the oral. It should be vice versa, as the content presents understanding and comprehension of the unit or lesson. Even if all the content expectations of the rubric are met, students’ final grades decrease because of their accent. As opposed to English class presentations, Spanish classes grade heavily on accents. In English classes, a student with a distinct accent is not graded for their pronunciation; instead, they are graded on the content of their presentation. Due this pressure, from the earlier poll, 76% of the 30 Spanish students reported feeling anxious on oral days. Of course, the goal is to become fluent in another language; however, it is unfair to expect students to have a perfect accent just after a few years learning it. It takes exposure, practice, and years to master the accent of a certain language.

The Spanish department merely lacks passion to profess such a beautiful and cultural language. In fact, from the aforementioned poll, 83% of the students reported not feeling passionate about Spanish due to unenjoyable experiences learning the language. If passion for Spanish is taught to students, then stress levels will drop significantly for tests and orals. Students will succeed on the Spanish exams at the end of their fourth year because with passion, comes a desire to understand and learn the alluring language of Spanish.

-Will DePrez, Reporter

In the previous issue of the Wolfpacket, there was an article about the problems in the Spanish section of the World Language department here at CHS. At first I was happy to see someone had taken the initiative to detail areas that could be improved in one of the largest sections of the department on campus; however, upon reading it, I was very disappointed. The article had the potential to start the discussion about how to better the World Language department, but ended up being more of a roast of the faculty with invalid evidence to support its claims.

The most striking flaw in logic in this article had to be the poll it referenced. It cited that 76% of those polled said they were dissatisfied with the quality of the Spanish section of the World Language department. While at first glance that number is astonishing, it was later noted that the poll included only 30 students. Any statistics teacher (or student) would agree that 30 students is not a sufficient sample size to draw any valid data from considering the hundreds of students that take Spanish on campus.

The issue of teachers not preparing students for tests was also interesting to read. The writer states that the teachers should make the tests themselves, to suit their teaching style so the students will have a better chance at getting a good grade, while simultaneously noting how “unprepared” students are going into the AP and IB exams. How teachers’ personalized tests will help students pass standardized exams in May is unclear. As for encountering vocabulary on tests that have not been taught; that is part of learning a language. It is not always necessary to know the exact meaning of every word in a passage, but is more important to understand the main idea, and be able to identify details pointing to that conclusion. Additionally, teachers cannot teach every single word to students. Spanish teachers recommend that students spend time with the language outside of class, whether that be watching Spanish TV, or listening to Latino pop. By listening to people speak the language, students gain new vocabulary, better accents, and a better understanding of natural sentence structure that separates fluent speakers from those who simply know how to conjugate verbs.

The final argument made in the original article, to me, was an inexcusable fallacy. Again drawing data from the 30 person poll, the writer claims that 83% of students “did not feel passionately about the language,” and claims that if passion for Spanish was taught, students would succeed on exams. Though I completely agree that passion in a subject can increase a student’s success, passion cannot be taught. To say that you did not succeed in Spanish because your teacher did not inspire you is a cop-out. It is one’s own responsibility to find the motivation to learn something, whether the motivation be to immerse yourself in a beautiful language and culture, or just to get a grade you can show your parents without fear.

Some of the activities I have found to be most enriching in my Spanish education were those in which I was actively participating in class activities, rather than just trying to get participation points or an “A” on the test. I danced to latino music that I now listen to on my iPhone, speaking in broken but exuberant Spanish with my peers in Maestra Suarez’s Honor’s II class, and I listened intently as G-Lo spoke lovingly about her parents and children in Spanish III. I was actively engaged all while becoming more proficient in speaking and understanding real Spanish, not that only out of a book.

This is what we need in CHS Spanish classes. They need to be interactive, not always just out of the book. I do not mean to say that every day needs to be a party in the 800 quad, but there needs to be more independent thought. Instead of constructing sentences out of a book for the whole period, let us take a few minutes to talk about what we did yesterday, things we like, things we hate, memories, current events, pop culture and anything else that crosses our minds. Simple things like this transform Spanish from a foreign jumble of words and accents on a page, to a tangible experience. Vocabulary quizzes and tests with “mindless” conjugation are necessary to know what to use when speaking, but authentic conversation and cultural appreciation are key to mastering a language.

Obviously the World Language Department has a certain curriculum to abide by, and they cannot be blamed for that, but the only way to make any positive change is to try. So keep proposing solutions and stay positive.

-Name Withheld

While the Wolfpacket does not accept unsigned, anonymous letters, an exception has been made to withhold the name of the student on request to better allow their voice to be heard.