Many schools still face the dilemma of how to place the
Spanish-speaker student in a Spanish class. If the school does not offer
the Spanish for Native Speakers class, placing the student in a lower level
class is like sending a high school student to a first-grade class. The student becomes bored and frustrated
and will cause behavior problems. Due to the lack of knowledge of this type of student’s background
information, teachers have the tendency to recommend guidance counselors to place them in higher level Spanish classes like pre-AP Spanish IV or AP Spanish
V. They give the student the choice to take the highest level that they
think they can handle. Therefore, the student fails or continues to cause
behavior problems because they get frustrated with the difficulty of the course
and their lack of skills.
Many times, students who have the ability to do well in a Spanish class prefer to stay in a lower level class and play the game, just so that they can get an easy A. The sad part is that students are encouraged by the teachers to play this game as long as they don’t cause any behavior problems. This type of attitude, from students and teachers, is one of the reasons why it is so important to create a placement test that will screen the student’s ability before they get placed in a class.
Finally, some schools try to persuade those
students to learn another language such as German, Sign Language, or French, since they don’t have a Spanish for Native
Speakers program. Schools that offer the Spanish for Native
Speakers program have the tendency to create a well-structured program that offers level I through III. Upon the completion
of the third level, students can advance
to AP V or AP Spanish literature. Some schools that offer the Spanish for Native Speakers program don't have the
appropriate training or resources for teachers. Therefore many discrepancies
and wrong decisions are made when placing students in the appropriate
level.
