Chapter 6: Practice Informing Theory: A Retrospective Approach

I was teaching Spanish in a small town in rural Arizona less than two hours from the U.S.-Mexico border. The demographics of the town had changed rapidly from a White majority to a Latino majority almost overnight. The two groups often lived next door to each other, but rarely interacted. School had been in session for about a month. The classroom was alive with the sounds of halting Spanish as the beginning Spanish students were honing their language skills with their native-speaking classmates. They were preparing to carry out their weekend’s homework assignment, an interview with their Spanish-speaking neighbors. The interview guides they had prepared were not particularly complicated. After all, they had only been in Spanish class for a month. “¿De dónde es Ud.?” (Where are you from?) and “¿Cuándo es su cumpleaños?” (When is your birthday?) were typical questions they planned to ask. However, they seemed as focused as Katie Couric prepping for a primetime interview exclusive. At the same time, two native speakers of Spanish were putting the finishing touches on a short letter in Spanish which explained the interview assignment to the neighbors along with suggestions, such as to speak slowly.