Where are my dual language teachers at?! Please tell me I am not alone when it comes to motivating and keeping students in the target language (in my case Spanish)?!?! As students get older, their social language changes and staying in the target language gets more challenging. Here are four ways I have tried (and most of the time been successful) in motivating students to use their Spanish. I’ve also included what their “prize” is for doing so. Be prepared to switch between English and Spanish as you read.
1. “Sin acuerdo” competición
This is a bingo style game where students will earn a “square” when they complete the task on it. All the tasks have to be done by a student SIN acuerdo de la maestra. I split them up into groups and the group that fills up their squares first wins the prize! I print out different colored squares for the teams. Here is an example! You can even go download it for free using this link! 😉
The ones that get completed quickly in my class are a student interpreter and volunteered to read. Woot woot for reading! The trickier one happens to be when they are working with partners because they prefer to use their social language of English.
2. Escribe la palabra
For this game, the whole class is a team working towards spelling out a word. I typically use the word “español”, but be creative and use any word you’d like! A word that goes along with the unit of study is a great example. How this works is I will add a letter to the word when I hear the students using Spanish. For this one I don’t have a set criteria, but will really emphasize the use of their Spanish. If by the end of the week they earned the letters to spell out the word, they get a prize.
3. El estudiante secreto
Para este no se dice quien va ser el estudiante secreto. Each day I would choose a student who I will be watching closely to see how often they use their Spanish. My class periods are about 50 minutes so I look for a student to use their Spanish 4-5 times, depending on the activity. At the end of class, I reveal who the secret student was. “¡Edwin fue el estudiante secreto y SI/NO uso su español 5 veces!” If the student DID use their Spanish enough time, the class gets a point. Once they get to 10 points, they get a prize!
4. El trofeo
You don’t necessarily need a trophy for this game, you can use any type of “special” object. I actually saw these cute little mini piñatas at Target that would be fun! Once you have your special object, you have your class split into groups. The object can get stolen when a group does one of the following Spanish tasks (feel free to add your own task!):
- Reminded the class/group to speak in target language
- Habló con la maestra
- Habló con su grupo/pareja
I suggest limiting the number of times the object can be stolen in case it gets out of hand. Whichever team has the object at the end of class, gets a point for the day. The group to get 10 points first, wins a prize!
5. Tipos de premios
Confession: I rarely spend money on my students! I am all for FREE prizes! Here is a list of free prizes to reward your students with after they’ve earned a prize.
- Social chat – 5 minutes of free talking in English or Spanish
- Play a class game for last 10 minutes of class
- Question pass (similar to a homework pass, but they only get to skip ONE question instead of the whole assignment)
- Class DJ – in charge of choosing the *school appropriate* playlist!
- Free seating for a day
- Listening to own music with headphones
- Choose the teachers outfit
- Have class outside
- Go on a walking “field trip” – take a walk around your building as a class
- First one(s) out the door
If you need more ideas, check out this blog post. Wow! So many great ideas.
Conclusion
To sum it up, motivating students to stay in the target language gets harder as students get older, but it’s not impossible. These 4 ways have helped me stop staying “en español” as much and I hope they can help you too! They also make the class a little more fun. 😉 Let me know in the comments if you’ve tried any of these or if you have some other ways to share.
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