Teaching Spanish: Where are you going?

Abstract

The teaching of Spanish undergoes a severe crisis, as in shown in the great percentages of the population that has difficulties in understanding even simple texts and produces unintelligible texts; that the problem is generally known, is shown in several important national and international studies. Our study centers on showing the causes of the problem and its possible solutions. We consider it important to teach children and the young people to have a considerable command of Spanish; to center the teaching on the understanding and the production of texts and keep on a second level the teaching of grammar and spelling and other aspects that correspond more to an explicit knowledge of the language that, furthermore,is not well taught, either. On the other hand, the problem is not onlymethodological; it has its roots in the social and economical situation of thecountry. There is no acces to the books necessary, the people cannot buy them and there hardly exist any public libraries; with respect to the lackingof educational politics (there is no national project in the branch of education), each government modifies the plans of study, not justifying anything at all. The forming of teachers is highly deficient. The teachers oft he Spanish that finish their studies in the Faculties of Education and Pedagogical Institutes do nor always manage well this language and alltheir formation is centred on methodologies, not having really a solid formation in scientific knowledge, that they should teach. Usually it is not taken into account that Peru is a multilingual and multidialectal country, that there is a great variety of sociolectes and registers; all that should betaken into account and that without this consideration, the teaching of beSpanish will not be successful, but a failure.