Course Description First Semester Spanish is a course designed and taught for students with no previous knowledge of Spanish. The course seeks to have students develop a novice level proficiency, according to the guidelines developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, in listening, speaking, reading and writing in Spanish. Developing an awareness of differences between the grammar and syntax of English and Spanish and sensitivity to Hispanic cultures and citizens in comparison with their own culture are also major goals of the course. There are several sections of the course taught every semester. Most sections are taught by Teaching Assistants pursuing a Master of Arts in Foreign Language and Literature in Spanish. Some sections are taught by Lecturers. The College of Letters and Science and other schools at UW-Milwaukee have a foreign language requirement. Most of the students who enroll in this course do so to satisfy that requirement and they are at different points in their academic career, freshman to senior. Enrollment in theses course stabilizes around 20 students per section by the third week of the semester, but the section where we taught the lesson had a low enrollment of 12 students, and on the day of the lesson, 8 students came to class. It is a night class and most students hold jobs. When we taught the class the first time around, it was an early morning class, also with low enrollment. The lesson was taught in the 14th week of the semester. The first time around, the topic was placed earlier in the semester, but the position in the syllabus was changed with the new edition of the textbook that we use. Spanish at UW-Milwaukee follows a communicative approach so students are used to speaking with each other in Spanish in pairs and small groups and to having the class conducted entirely in Spanish. Therefore, the classroom atmosphere on the day of the lesson was relaxed and most students interacted comfortably with each other. The activities prepared for this class were similar to activities done regularly. The topic of the lesson is covered directly in two 50-minute class periods and it is fundamental to basic communication in Spanish. The lesson covered the first 50-minute period dedicated to direct and indirect object pronouns.

Executive Summary The lesson topic was one introduced always in first semester Spanish courses. The pronominal paradigm in Spanish presents unique challenges to Anglo speakers due to the many differences between both languages. Learning goals: The broad goal of this lesson study project was to get a better understanding of how our students develop their understanding of grammatical concepts in Spanish that do not correlate with English, in particular the use of object pronouns. We hoped to come out of the lesson study project with better teaching strategies to help students learn in a more effective manner. The specific academic learning goal for the lesson was for students to develop an awareness of the object pronoun structure in Spanish and to acquire proficiency in using them correctly in controlled authentic situations. Lesson Design: The lesson involved a progressive set of activities in which students were guided from recognition and choral repetition of the structure to the spontaneous use of the object pronouns in conversation. Students were first guided by the instructor to identify the verb, subject, direct and indirect object in Spanish sentences, and to identify the corresponding object pronouns. In the second step, students were asked to answer questions using the object pronouns in their response. The instructor used transparencies for these activities, providing answers as needed and asking for choral repetition of the answers. In the following step, student pairs were asked to match a set of questions and answers, in which object pronouns were used. An oral activity using props followed to trigger students’ automatic responses using object pronouns. Students were paired for the next activity, an information-gap that required them to produce meaningful questions and answers using object pronouns. The closing activity integrated vocabulary review with spontaneous production of the structure at hand using props. Throughout the lesson, observers took detailed notes of students’ interactions, comments and discussions among themselves as they performed the activities. Major findings about student learning: The main finding of our team was to observe that students relied on words that they already knew, rather than on the particular object pronoun structure, to derive meaning and complete the tasks. Little attention was paid to the direct and indirect object pronouns; instead, they gravitated towards the verb as the main, and often only, cue to the right answer. We learned that for students to acquire this complex structure, input has to be extremely controlled so that they have no choice but to focus on the object pronouns as their clues. We also gathered insight into the importance of students being engaged in all the activities as active learners. Adding choral repetition and not providing the students with paper copies of the transparency increased student engagement to 100%. The third main finding was not unexpected: cooperative work is fundamental for students to acquire complex structures in a foreign language. Students are predisposed to rely on each other to ascertain meaning and, when offered the opportunity to do so by design, perform the tasks much more accurately and at ease.

Identification  Complete Report (Word format) How Students Learn Object Pronouns in Spanish

Recognition  The Lesson Below are links to the lesson plan and to the materials used to teach it, with the exception of the props. Materials are labeled and organized in the order that they are used in the class. The Lesson Plan What You Need to Teach the Class

Production  The Study Below are links to the study and to samples of observations gathered during the lesson. Study of How Students Learn Object Pronouns in Spanish Observation Samples