My first experience learning a second language began in my high school years

where we had to take two years of Spanish. I emphasize that I learned Spanish to some
extent in high school, but there was definitely not any acquisition of the language as
explained in Krashens Acquisition/Learning Hypothesis. As Krashen hypothesized, truly
acquiring a language occurs with meaningful interactions with native speakers (Peregoy
& Boyle, 2013). My teacher however, although a native speaker, did not provide us with
meaningful interactions. The teaching methodologies used in our high school Spanish
class were primarily behaviorist. We learned the language based on grammatical
complexity and rules of the language (Peregoy & Boyle, 2013). Words were written on
the board, and we learned how to change ending sounds first. Any output that we had was
class-wide and repetitious, such as answering back to the teacher saying, Good
morning. Every assessment was written, and we never had any type of oral assessment
whatsoever. Our teacher would teach in English and show us how to structure sentences
on the board or reference our book. The only time our teacher would speak in Spanish
would be to repeat a word or sentence that she wrote on the board, and then to have us
repeat after her. Since we didnt speak Spanish in class, other than as a group, any errors
were on paper from homework or tests, and those errors were always corrected.
Looking back, I think it would have helped tremendously to set aside part of
every class to interact with us in Spanish. This technique would have followed more
along the belief of Krashens Monitor Hypothesis in that the focus of learning a second
language should be communication, not rule learning; since rule learning only helps
polish language that has already been acquired (Peregoy & Boyle, 2013). According to
Krashen, our high school teacher did it backwards!

My second experience learning Spanish was in college when I decided to pursue a

Bachelor of Arts degree, and it required four semester of a foreign language. At this point
it became much more difficult. I had 2 different professors. The first one taught in a
behaviorist and interactionist way, and I learned how to write and read Spanish very well
with this professor. She would teach us in English with structure and repetition for the
first of the class. We mainly learned grammar rules through written exercises and
vocabulary. For the other of the class, she would only speak Spanish, and we would
have fun conversations. What I loved about her is that she gave no pressure for us to
speak and if we attempted and messed up, she would have us figure it out through more
conversation, which was pure innatist. She was great about having a silent period to give
us a chance to understand the language, as well as, giving us comprehensible input
(Peregoy & Boyle, 2013). I still didnt learn how to speak very well because I spoke so
little and there just wasnt enough time, but it made learning Spanish more enjoyable.
The last professor I had made me never want to speak Spanish again. I suppose
she attempted to teach in an innatist or interactionist method, but she failed miserably.
She only taught in Spanish, which was her attempt at immersion I suppose, but many of
her students werent ready for that so we missed out on a lot and had to study the book.
The worst thing she did though was speaking to us in Spanish and force us to answer. The
more hesitant you were to speak, the more she would call on you. There was a definite
silent period for us to try and form our response, but it was not low anxiety by any
means.
Overall, I feel I was successful in reading and writing Spanish, but I was not
successful in speaking it. I feel the behaviorist method of structure, repetition, and
learning based on grammatical complexity was very helpful in teaching me how to read

and write. However, I think the fact that I never learned how to speak orally gives credit
to all of Krashens five hypotheses, as well as, innatist and interactionist theories. I
believe I would be better at speaking Spanish if I had been taught within the framework
that language is a communication system and not just a set of grammatical rules
(Leonardi, 2010).
I particularly like the interactionist analogy that second language learners are like
infants. The only way they can communicate is through non-verbal language, and their
teachers are the adult in charge of leading interaction. Teachers should slowly back away
as they become more verbal, just as we would allow a typical infant or toddler (Henschel,
2012). I am not saying that there is never an appropriate time for behaviorist type
instruction, but I believe if I had been taught primarily in an innatist and interactionist
way, I would have developed a natural curiosity for the language as well as confidence
and low anxiety that would have enabled me to flourish.