UpDate - Vol. 13, No. 35, Page 6
June 23, 1994
Language prof's text encourages active learning

     Joan L. Brown's new book, Conversaciones creadoras, published by
D.C. Heath, is the next best thing to being in a Spanish-speaking
country. Written for intermediate Spanish students, the underlying
concept is to encourage students to speak and to have experiences in
Spanish through interactive role playing, according to Brown, a
professor of foreign languages and literatures.
     This method of teaching was pioneered by the late Robert Di
Pietro, who chaired the Department of Foreign Languages and
Literatures and whose theories were an inspiration, Brown said.
     Richard A. Zipser, current chairperson, and the Office of
International Programs and Special Sessions provided important
support. Otilia Hoidal, instructor in foreign languages and
literatures, also contributed to the book, which took 10 years to
complete.
     The unusual, central feature of the book is that each chapter has
an unfinished mini-drama in dialogue form by Carmen Martin Gaite, a
noted Spanish novelist and Brown's co-author. Students step into the
roles of the mini-drama characters and work in autonomous groups to
conclude the episodes. Usually, the groups then act out their
scenarios for the class.
     Brown wrote her doctoral dissertation and a book, Secrets from
the Back Room: The Fiction of Carmen Martin Gaite, about her co-
author's fiction and included her in her recent book, Women Writers of
Contemporary Spain: Exiles in the Homeland.
     Martin Gaite has won the Spanish National Prize for Literature
and the Prince of Asturias Prize, one of the most prestigious
international prizes for Hispanic literature.
     The two met and became friends after Brown finished graduate
school at the University of Pennsylvania. One outcome of the
friendship was the collaboration on Coversasiones  creadoras.
     Other textbooks have included role-playing, but to a lesser
degree, and the situations were so simplistic that they did not engage
college students' attention, Brown said. Martin Gaite wrote about real-
life situations that students might encounter, from romantic
friendships to sports to dealing with the bureaucracy of a university
in a Hispanic country.
     The scenarios are open ended so that students can make up the
endings.
     The episodes were student-tested at Delaware, Brown said, and
student input has been invaluable in fine-tuning the text.
     Each chapter is based around a functional topic such as
activities in a travel agency or a hospital and includes readings
related to the culture of Spain and the cultures of other Hispanic
countries. There also are other creative activities for students to
enact, such as a role play for two in which a producer of rock videos,
trying to break into the Hispanic-American market, tries to convince a
network programming director, interested in buying crime shows, that
the music will appeal to a large audience.
     Different interactive situations can involve pairs, a small group
or the whole class, providing different dynamics in the classroom.
     Vocabulary and grammar are not forgotten, but the book breaks new
ground by enabling fluency.
     "In the years I have been teaching, I have known too many people
who do well in the classroom, reading and writing, and yet can't speak
the language they have studied," Brown said. "This method of teaching
gives learners the opportunity to develop their oral language skills.
     I have taped students during classes from the beginning of the
semester until the end and the difference in their ability to speak
Spanish is amazing."
                                                   -Sue Swyers Moncure