ABSTRACT
I’m struggling in my advanced grammar class in Spanish and am no doubt the worst student in the class. If all of my classmates took a vote on who should be acknowledged as the worst language learner, it’s the one award I am confident I would win. I have to pass this class in order to satisfy the foreign language requirement for my MA degree, so I’m feeling under considerable pressure. Everyone else but me has lived in a Spanish-speaking country either as a study abroad student or as a missionary. In addition, we even have some native Spanish speakers in the course. I have only had two years of Spanish at the University. At the teacher’s suggestion, I hired a tutor. She is a fellow MA student, a native Spanish speaker from Venezuela, and is my neighbor. Although I like her very much and believe she is trying to help me, I am frustrated. When I ask her why I have to say something in Spanish a particular way, she tells me that it’s just the way Spanish works and cannot give me a reason or a rule. The depressing thing is that I study more for this class than any other class. I’m having such a hard time. I make embarrassing mistakes and cannot keep up with the other students. My tutor’s own Spanish is beautiful; she is also a graduate student and an educated native speaker. When she returns to Venezuela she plans to open her own school teaching English. I don’t see why she doesn’t help me understand Spanish grammar rules. [Christison, research data 3/25/2004]
Task: Reflection
1. Why do you think the Spanish tutor refuses to give the graduate student the grammar rules when she asks for them?
