Maria De Oza Azna teaches Spanish at the commercial training course at Tietgen-skolen in Odense, Denmark. She uses Dialoogle to give the students a flying start to learning the new language.

None of Maria De Oza Azna’s students have had Spanish before. This means that many of them find it hard to believe that they will ever learn to understand Spanish – let alone learn to speak this very foreign language.

“In other words, the students have to overcome their own barriers to get started. They don’t think they can do it  – but actually, they already know more than they think,” Maria says. She uses Dialoogle to help the students to discover this.

“I place 20 Magnum cards on the floor. Then I start to talk in Spanish about the picture on one of the cards while the students are listening. The student that first understands which card I am talking about will run in and get hold of it.”

“Just the fact that the students won’t be in their seats but can get up and walk around loosen them up. Once you get started, it becomes a competition. And all of a sudden, the students realize that they can actually understand some of what I am saying. The fact that the exercise is a listening game means that the more quiet students who normally don’t say a lot can participate and have a successful experience when they get hold of a card” Maria continues.

“In this way, I can actually maintain the concentration of the class during the entire lesson which ordinarily can be difficult.”

Through the listening game, the students get more familiar with the sound of the Spanish language and also with the picture cards. When she takes out the cards again later, it will be easier for the students to overcome the barrier and get speaking.

“When teaching language at a higher level, it will be natural to let the students talk to each other in the foreign language from the cards,” Maria concludes.