How much Target Language should I use?
Using the Target Language in your French, Spanish, Italian classes
An element of teaching that we as World Language Teachers need to be mindful of—that our math, science, language arts, and social studies colleagues do not!—is how much target language we should use in our French, Spanish, Italian, or German classes. Core content areas have the luxury of teaching exclusively in the L1, whereas we as World Language teachers must strike a balance between using L1 and the target language, as we know that students acquire language when we provide them with comprehensible input—or messages that they are able to understand; however, we also know that students disengage when they are not able to understand most of what we are saying to them.
You may have heard teachers, supervisors, or PD consultants say things like, “In order to be an effective World Language teacher, you must be speaking in the target language at least 90% of the time!” Or maybe you’ve heard folks propose that we ban the use of English in the World Language classroom. How much target language we should be using in our World Language classrooms is definitely an interesting if not controversial conversation, and I wish I had a magic number for you… like, “If you speak x% of the time in the target language, your students will be fluent by May!” The truth is, however, that this discussion is highly nuanced and dependent on a multitude of factors.
Similar to hot-button topics in education like Should we assign homework? or Should students be allowed to have their phones with them in the classroom?—both of which I have LOTS of thoughts about, by the way!—I think the short answer is: Well, it depends, and context matters. What a middle school novice language learner needs is not the same as what a high school intermediate or advanced language learner needs. Let’s dive into this conversation a bit more.
Am I being comprehensible, or am I producing noise?
I think one of the most important questions to consider is whether or not your students are understanding the messages you are communicating to them. If it is the first day of Italian class, and you start speaking to your students using 100% Italian, how much will they realistically understand? Probably less than 5%! So in this case, you are producing noise and your students are liable to disengage in the best case scenario or start misbehaving in the worst case scenario.
Side note: I have a question I’d like for you to consider. How do you build relationships and classroom community with your students if you are communicating with them exclusively in a language they do not understand? Yes, our job is to teach language, but we are teachers before anything else! Building relationships—especially at the start of the school year—is essential to what we do. If students don’t respect you or feel like you are completely unapproachable as a teacher, they will not really want to learn language from you.
Now, let’s consider another scenario. You’re teaching Spanish 3 and your students have had many years of Spanish under their belt. Would it be appropriate to speak to them predominantly in Spanish? Absolutely! Especially when you are talking about topics they have previously studied, using language structures that they are familiar with. What are some ways to gauge student comprehension? Here are a few:
Read the room. Pay attention to your students’ eyes and facial expressions. You can tell if they are following along with you or not. If they’re spacing out, looking out the window daydreaming, or have a confused look on their faces, then they are definitely not understanding you.
Ask comprehension questions to gauge understanding. These can be simple “Yes/No” questions - remember, the goal is to gauge comprehension and not necessarily to evoke output.
Ask for a translation. You’ve just said “Mi piace andare al mercato per comprare frutte e verdure.” Ask them to translate the message into English to ensure that they’ve understood it!
Don’t be afraid of translating! Translation is an effective tool to gauge comprehension. Just be careful that you don’t over-translate, which can lead to students expecting you to follow up every single target language sentence with a translation. They won’t pay attention to what you’re telling them in German if they know that every German sentence is followed by an English translation.
What is my communicative purpose?
When deciding whether you will use the target language or English/L1, it’s important to consider your communicative purpose. Are you telling a comprehensible story with the goal of entertaining your students as they acquire level-appropriate language? Are you teaching your students an important grammar topic that will help them communicate more accurately? Are you sharing a cultural perspective from the target culture(s)? Once again, context matters.
I always try to ask myself, Does it make sense for me to use the target language in this instance? If the answer is no, then I don’t. I use English, and I move on with my lesson.
Why would I waste my time trying to explain a complex grammar topic in the target language, when students will understand the concept much more clearly if I use English? Why would I explain multi-step directions for a collaborative group activity in the target language, when I can easily explain them in English in a fraction of the time? Why would I tell my students in the target language about a hilarious thing that happened to me when I was studying abroad, knowing that they won’t understand the key points that make the story hilarious and entertaining? You see, in these instances, I’ve got a clear communicative purpose:
When teaching grammar, my goal is to instruct clearly so that students learn content.
When explaining an activity, my goal is to provide clear and concise directions so that students know what they’re doing.
When telling a story about my study abroad experience, my goal is to share cultural information and to entertain.
Why would I obfuscate my audience by using language that does not necessarily allow me to fulfill my communicative purpose? Use the target language when it makes sense!
Am I using techniques to make myself comprehensible?
As you continue using comprehensible input in your classroom, you will develop a repertoire of techniques that help you to make yourself more easily understood. I could write an entire blog post on this topic, but for the sake of this post, I’m going to share a few techniques that you can implement tomorrow in your classroom to maximize the amount of input you deliver to students that is actually comprehensible:
Speak slowly. Enunciate.
Repeat yourself. Rephrase when needed.
Simplify your language. Don’t use brilliant, intelligent, astute, or wise if you know your students only know the word smart.
Use synonyms and offer explanations. If you are going to use the word intelligent, explain what it means by offering synonyms that students already know. “The boy is intelligent. Do you understand the word intelligent? It’s a synonym for smart. The boy is smart. The boy is intelligent. It means the same thing. Do you understand?”
Use gestures.
Write words on the board.
Use translations when appropriate.
Use images and graphics to help illustrate certain vocabulary, themes, etc.
Is my language compelling?
Our language not only needs to be comprehensible, it needs to be compelling. We need to deliver messages to our students that are not only understandable, but interesting, engaging, and mentally stimulating. If students are not interested in what we are saying, they may check out even though they understand every single word we’re saying to them! Imagine you’re teaching a Spanish 1 text to your Spanish 4 students. They will understand every single word you’re reading out loud to them, but they’re going to check out because the input you are providing is no longer interesting or relevant to them. I have a few tips I’d like you to keep in mind as you’re reflecting on whether or not your language is compelling:
Language Level. We want to keep our language slightly more advanced than the level most of our students are at. Dr. Krashen referred to this type of input as i+1, in which i is the students’ current level of language and +1 represents the next level in their language acquisition journey. Therefore, our topics and texts need to be level-appropriate in that they are just a bit harder than what students are currently capable of grappling with.
Language Topics. Are we talking about things that are relevant to our students’ lives? 7th grade French students couldn’t care less about how French teens acquire their driver’s license…but 10th and 11th grade French students sure do! Choose themes, topics, texts, and conversations that will engage your students because they want to learn more, discuss, and hear other points of view.
Language Resources. Are we choosing resources that are interesting and that spark conversation? Grammar exercises are notoriously dull, but readings (authentic or otherwise!) are typically more engaging and serve as great jumping-off points for target language use.
Use articles, infographics, short texts, Youtube videos, podcast clips, etc. to help spark conversation and increase target language use.
I know that the question of how much target language you should use is a contentious one, and many teachers have differing perspectives and approaches. For me, I don’t think that there is a one-size-fits-all answer to the question, just like I don’t believe that ALL teachers should assign homework every single day of the week or students should NEVER be allowed to have their phones in class under any circumstances! Context matters, and ultimately, you need to do what’s most appropriate for your students. With that being said, I hope you’ve gleaned some ideas from this post to help inform the quality and content of the language that you offer to students. I’d love to hear your thoughts about the topic. Feel free to share them below!
~ Michael
