by Evelyn Saavedra Autry

Consider a graded paper covered in red marks, hard-to-read comments, squiggly lines, and cross-outs. What does it tell you about the grader? What does it represent to the student? What are the benefits for both the student and the teacher?

I must confess, I am responsible for this sort of annihilation of a paper and most likely a corresponding assassination of my student’s confidence and dream to become a fluent Spanish writer. As a language teacher, I am responsible for teaching grammar structures, vocabulary, writing, and content. What can I do as language teacher to help my students correct grammatical mistakes? How can I help them write better in a foreign language? I think these are the wrong questions to ask. The real questions should be: How can I help my students write better? As well as, does my students’ writing make sense? Does it have good arguments? As a writing coach in a foreign language classroom, I must find balance between two roles: the grammar grader and the reader. This can be accomplished by thinking as a reader and not a grader.

Let me explain. Language learners will usually make the same mistakes in the process of second language acquisition. A better teaching approach is to address the problem to the entire class instead of singling out mistakes on one student’s paper. One day, after returning essays to my students, I implemented a 15-minute grammar workshop, which included simple and difficult structures. I held brief workshops like these throughout the semester and believe they were beneficial for the entire class.

Another activity that helped this class was to simply meet with the students. Conferences took a long time, but the one-on-one meeting is the most important method in a language classroom. Conferences enabled the opportunity to talk to students about the writing process and to discuss how important writing is when trying to master a foreign language. It is easy to forget when teaching content and not language that many of these college students are still in the process of making a connection with a new language.

Teaching writing in a 400-level classroom has taught me a few things about students’ abilities as far as mastering Spanish through writing. One of the many lessons I learned is that writing creates a space for meaningful communications between students and the professor. Coaching students to focus on content and not grammar also allows me to distance myself from the role of grader. I have learned to be a reader and not just a grader. Although it may be difficult, the success of my students depends on my version of the teacher as concerned and engaged reader, not on the teacher who is excitedly waiting to correct grammatical mistakes, or fix the “wrong” usage of vocabulario y gramática en español.

Evelyn Saavedra Autry is currently a first year PhD student at the Romance Languages Department majoring in Hispanic Studies. Her research focuses on construction of gender and political violence in contemporary Peruvian narratives, and how they portray Indigenous people. In addition to collecting old and rare books, she also enjoys cooking, dancing, and taking her dogs hiking.