Teaching Methods of Foreign Languages : Teaching and learning of Spanish language in Kabul

• Main Author: Zahir, Freshta
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Karlstads universitet 2013
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-33821

Second languages which are also called foreign languages are learnt beside native spoken languages and they are learnt in a systematic way (Hinkel, 2005). Spanish and English are widely spoken around the globe and they have improved a lot in Afghanistan, especially SPanish after Spanish military existence in teh country as part of ISAF after 2001 to Afghanistan and after the establishment of some private schools where Spanish is a part of curriculum. This school was built due to the interest of Spanish embassy. As the embassy got informed that there is the Spanish department, they immidiately got interested and wanted to establish a school in Afghanistan too where Spanish will be taught as one subject in this only one school in Kabul city. Since, there are mostly non-native speaking teachers with different teaching approaches in Kabul University; the researcher therefore, conducted this study to compares English and Spanish language teachers in the university and a private school. Moreover, students’ perceptions as regards learning a second language are explored as well as their experience and motives. Data for this research is collected with the help of ready-made questionnaire which was distributed to 20 English teachers, seven Spanish teachers at the university, five teachers of Kabul international school, 50 students of Spanish department and 50 students of Kabul international school. In addition to this, five classes were observed in university and five in private school, which helped the comparison of teachers’ perceptions and factual teaching performance in the class. It was found that there are both similarities and differences among teachers of English and Spanish teachers when teaching these foreign languages. In schools these languages are taught superficially and teachers lack professional knowledge while in the university vice versa. This research also found that nearly all the staff and students in Spanish department are grown up in urban areas and none of the students while only three out of 12 Spanish teachers have visited Spain. Half of the students in school were concerned about the impact of Spanish on Afghan society while students in the university and Spanish teachers had the counter idea. Moreover, it was found that in university students were given articles, assignments and topics from magazines and newspapers apart from daily lessons for the intention that students strengthen their Spanish language while this practice was hardly visible in school classrooms. In school Spanish language was taught on lecture based where students rarely found any chance for practice of the language and most of the time was allocated for the translation of Spanish. === TEMP Afganistan