Daniel E. Ralphs and Dr. Thomas Lyon, Spanish and Portuguese
Alfredo had been in the United States for only three weeks when he began in the local public school in Provo, Utah. Native to central Mexico, Alfredo spoke no English. Assigned to work with Alfredo as a volunteer, I began by asking his teacher how I could help or where I should begin with his schooling. She responded desperately, “I have no idea!” Even though my Spanish minimized the language barrier, the teacher was still frustrated as to where she could begin with her new student. We realized that, to help Alfredo adjust, we not only had to overcome the obvious language barrier but also the dramatic difference between his former school and his new one. Her ignorance on where to begin with Alfredo was understandable, especially because she had never been to Mexico nor had the opportunity to understand the schooling process there. She had no way to relate to the educational background of her new student.
When the opportunity arose for me to spend time in a Latin American country, the Dominican Republic, it gave me the ability to study the educational environment first hand. It is my desire to educate those teachers who may have difficulties teaching Dominican students by allowing them to help their students make more fluid transitions into the educational system here in the United States. My first hand experiences in the Dominican schools were eye opening and I learned basic things that can help teachers who are placed in the situation of teaching a transfer student from a Dominican school. I will list five basic things than may be useful.
1. Dominican classrooms could be described as noisy and crowded. Usually class sizes were at least thirty-five students and were as many as forty-five. The floor plans in all grades from first through eighth grades were basically the same. All of the desks were in rows with the teacher’s desk and blackboard at the front of the classroom. Another factor that added to the already noisy and congested room was the fact that the acoustics in the room were usually terrible. In one classroom a thin hanging wall was the only divider between the sixth grade and the fifth grade classes. The noisy classroom attributed to two common classroom characteristics. First, there was a lot of talking among the students and, second, the teacher would often raise his/her voice to quiet the noisy students. Transfer students, therefore, may not understand the importance of quiet time and it may take them time to respond to quiet reminders for discipline.
2. Even in the Dominican Republic the saying, “Boys will be boys”, would apply because, just as in our hometown classrooms, the “good boys” sit in the front and the “bad boys” sit in the back. Due to the long rows and the crowded classrooms the place where the students sat was especially important in regard to their behavior. The trouble makers in the classroom would tend to huddle toward the back of the classroom and were almost always divided by gender- boys in one corner and girls in another. Hence, a recommendation to remedy behavior problems may be as simple as a change in seating arrangement. It is important to be cautious so that assigned seating does not make transfer students feel dumb because they are placed in the back of the classroom.
3. In one of the first classrooms where I observed, the teacher asked a question and two-thirds of the hands in the room shot up anxious to answer. Some of the students called out, “profe., profe.”, or “teacher, teacher”. I had never seen so much desire to participate. The participation demonstrated in that classroom was consistent in all of the classrooms. The resultant praise from the teacher or just showing off in class was all the reward that they needed for a correct answer. Giving praise and opportunities to participate should be helpful to transfer students. It seemed to be their validation and their measure of success in school was their ability to answer questions correctly.
4. Two teaching techniques prevailed throughout my observations. First, students each had a notebook. The teacher would write assignments, principles, and basically all written material on the chalkboard. Then students would spend time copying down all that was written on the board. Even in early grades a fair amount of time was spent copying down all of this information. Second, a good amount of teachers used a question and answer method of teaching. For example, in a math problem a teacher may ask, “What is the first step class?”, the class would then respond in unison almost word for word. Then the teacher would ask the second step and so forth.
Copying these techniques may be helpful in the first stages of learning here in the States, especially as students are struggling with new methods. Tutoring my follow the question and answer method until basic concepts are understood.
5. Unfortunately, there were few things in common between the different schools observed. In areas such as curriculum and work habits, the standards varied from school to school. The curriculum varied tremendously. Some students are one or even two years behind our math standard while, others are working on the same or even a higher level. Some schools require two to three hours of homework a night, while others only require fifteen minutes. The major dividing line between the extremes is the economic level. In the Dominican Republic the school system is divided into two parts: the public school system, which usually services the poorer part of the population, and the private sector which caters to anyone from the middle class to the super rich with all variations in between. As a result the variations in academic background are limitless and, unfortunately, that leaves teachers with a lot of guess and check work to do with new students. One place to begin is by asking students or parents about their prior school. If students speak no English simply ask, “Fuiste a un escuela publico o un colegio”, translated “Did you go to a public school or a college (private school)?”. Academically, public schools also vary but for the most part are poor compared to the private schools. In one public school in the fifth grade class they were still studying simple two-digit addition. On the other hand, in one private school fifth grade students were working on complex division and fractions. The truth is that to understand the academic background of students on a general level would be very difficult to determine.
The first few weeks of the new student’s time in the country is essential and is critical in the academic future of students. Doubtlessly these generalities do not necessarily describe all schools in the Dominican Republic. However, hopefully these observations can be helpful in adapting your teaching to the needs of these students who are making the difficult transition to the United States.