Around half a billion people speak Spanish as their first language. That’s a boggling amount. It’s more than the number of native English speakers. The TEFL market for Spanish-speaking English learners is possibly the largest in the world, covering most of Latin America, a big population in the States and, of course, Spain.
Chances are, if you’re reading this, you teach EFL/ESL to Spanish speakers or are about to start doing so. Congratulations! It’s a great experience.
Considering starting out as a teacher in a Spanish-speaking country? Check out my articles on how much you can earn and what kind of jobs you can expect by following the links: Spain, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Ecuador.
However, it’s not all plain sailing. There are some big differences between English and Hispanic language and culture, and that’s why I’ve put together this list of 9 tips for you.
Since starting teaching in Spain in 2015, I’ve had classes with hundreds of Spanish nationals, as you’d expect, and I’ve also taught people from Latin America. From this experience, I’ve figured out some aspects of teaching which are specific to Spanish-speaking students.
So let’s get to it!
This is by no means an exhaustive list, and things vary from country to country. And you certainly don’t need to know Spanish inside out for your role as a teacher.
Just consider going through some basic consonant pronunciation with your students if they’re making lots of mistakes, and try to highlight the main differences.
Spanish is phonetically consistent. That means you can look at a word and know how to pronounce it because the letters always correspond to the same sound.
This is great for people learning Spanish. But for Spanish-speaking students learning English, it’s a nightmare. Because English is not phonetically consistent. While there are patterns of pronunciation, you can’t know for sure how to say a word just from the letters.
Stone, bone, lone, throne – all have the same sound. That’s a pattern, right? But what about gone and shone? They have the same one letters, but a different sound. And done has a new pronunciation completely. Not to mention the ever-raging debate over how to say scone.
There are thousands of examples like this. It gets worse, too. The word “read” can pronounced in two different ways: present tense: I read a book every morning and past tense: Last week I read the newspaper.
Such a lack of phonetic consistency makes it hard for Spanish speakers to pronounce new words. So you have to help them out. When you teach a new word, make sure you provide the pronunciation alongside the written form, and repeat it several times. Get them to say it out loud a lot, too.
For more on how to teach vocabulary to EFL/ESL students, head to my big guide: Best Method to Improve EFL/ESL Students’ Vocabulary: 9 Steps
One nice thing about teaching Spanish speakers is there’s quite a lot of shared vocabulary.
Of course, the pronunciation is different, but the words are essentially the same. Fantastic, right?
Yes… but. It’s not always as easy as that. False friends are words that appear the same in the two languages, but have different meanings.
For example, suceso doesn’t mean success, instead it means event. Instead, éxito means success, rather than exit.
The false friend that always amuses me is constipado. A lot of my students say they’re feeling constipated, thinking it means congested, like having a cold. Of course, in English it means something else!
When these appear in your classes, and they certainly will, take the time to highlight them. Just correcting the mistake isn’t enough. You need to emphasise that it’s a false friend and make sure they know what they should say instead.
English is a curious language. As mentioned in the previous tip, there’s an element of Latin influence thanks to the Normans. Typically, the Latin-rooted words are longer and more technical. Prepare, illuminate, and transmit.
But there’s another side to the language. The Germanic side. When the Normans invaded, their Latin-based form of French was spoken by the ruling class, while many still stuck with the Anglo-Saxon tongue of the natives who had been invaded.
Over time, the two merged. This means there are often two ways of saying the same thing. Either you use the Latin-rooted word, or a shorter, Germanic word. In this second category, we have phrasal verbs.
A phrasal verb is the combination of a verb (almost always one-syllable) like get, make, put, send, etc. and a preposition or adjective. Get out, put up, take down are some examples. There are thousands of them.
And here’s the issue. For Spanish speakers, it’s a lot easier to learn the Latin-rooted words because they’re similar to their own language. But native English speakers use a lot of phrasal verbs. In fact, anglophone kids typically learn phrasal verbs before Latin-rooted words because they’re shorter and easier to spell.
The effects are twofold. Firstly, Spanish speakers struggle to sound natural when talking in English, as they use overly sophisticated Latin-based vocabulary. Secondly, it’s very hard for them to understand “real” written and spoken English.
I’m going to prepare my bag /// I’m going to get my bag ready
They want to illuminate the stage /// They want to light up the stage
She’s going to transmit the message /// She’s going to send out the message
Spanish speakers generally find the first of the two sentences easier to understand and may struggle with the second.
If you want to get your students speaking more natural English, you need to teach the phrasal verbs. I’d avoid doing this with big lists. Instead, when a Latin-rooted word comes up organically, highlight it and inform your students that there’s another way of saying it which would sound more natural.
For more on organic acquisition of vocabulary, read my article What Vocab Should You Teach in EFL/ESL: Organic acquisition.
Another big reason to teach phrasal verbs is because they show a higher fluency in English.
Cambridge exams are one of the most prestigious qualifications for work and study abroad. When you get to upper intermediate (B2) and higher, phrasal verbs are huge parts of the test. Knowing a few can make the difference between passing and failing.
By teaching them early on, you give your students a huge advantage in those exams.
Translating software is pretty good these days. But it’s not perfect. And it also creates a poor habit, regardless of which language you’re learning/teaching. To really make progress, you have to start thinking in the target language rather than your own.
There are quite a few annoying errors which my students make over and over again because they’re translating directly from Spanish.
One that drives me up the wall is students of a high ability saying “I have twenty-five years old.” Saying your age is one of the first things you learn in a new language, but years later, people still make the same mistake. And it’s not because they don’t know the correct form. It’s because they’re translating.
In Spanish, the same phrase is tengo 25 años. This directly translates to “I have 25 years.” Even though students know they should change the verb from “have” to “be” (in this case, “am”), they don’t.
Another example appears when making questions. Take, for example, Can we learn some new vocabulary? In English, to make a question, we put the auxiliary/modal verb (here, it’s “can”) before the subject (in this case “we”).
In Spanish, this doesn’t happen. Questions are just like a statement, but with a rising tone at the end. Students translating directly from Spanish say We can learn some new vocabulary? It happens time and time again. And there are hundreds of other instances where the same thing occurs.
So how do we avoid this? It isn’t easy. Especially for lower-level learners, thinking in a different language is tough. And you can’t force people to do it.
For me, the best approach is immersion. The longer they spend listening to or speaking English, the more their brains follow the correct patterns independently of their native tongue. Reading frequently helps. And don’t forget writing – the slower process of forming sentences reinforces correct patterns.
I’ve noticed the students who watch TV in English and speak it with natives on a regular basis eliminate those translation errors a lot faster than those who only ever engage with English during class.
Setting fun homework is a great way to get students immersed outside of your sessions. For some fantastic homework activities, read my list: 9 Engaging Homework Ideas for EFL/ESL: No worksheets!
Grammar is important. I’d never suggest you ignore grammar teaching, because without it, students can’t progress.
However, it isn’t everything. For many students, it’s the most difficult and boring aspect of learning a language. It’s good to get it right, but communication can often be achieved without perfect accuracy.
Not only that, but state schools in Spain (and other Hispanic countries) tend to teach hard grammar from an early age. Lots of my students complain about how their school English lessons consist of repeated grammar drills and exercises. They hardly ever speak. If you pile more grammar on top of that, they’ll get frustrated.
Remember, communication is key. The rules of grammar are there to help communication, not to suppress it. Native English speakers often break the rules (and most don’t know even half of them).
Spanish speakers, especially, tend to favour getting their message across, even if it’s not technically correct. And that’s fine. As long as they make themselves understood, do they need to be perfect?
Now, I’m not saying you should never correct grammar mistakes or avoid grammar instruction completely. Far from it. Just don’t correct every single mistake they make, because it’ll kill their confidence and fluency.
Of course, if your student wants to focus on grammar, you should absolutely do that. But you need to know that beforehand. To best know the aims of your student(s), you should perform a needs analysis early on. To find out how, read my guide, Needs Analysis for Private EFL/ESL Lessons.
Spanish speakers love to talk. It’s a generalisation, I know, but anyone who’s spent time with Hispanic people will know they’re chatty and often quite boisterous.
Even the kids. I have plenty of young students who are more than capable of chatting away for an hour or more without an issue. In fact, they talk so much it can be hard to stop them.
Not every student is like this. You’ll find a few who are shy, or don’t quite have the social skills to keep a conversation going, but they’re the minority.
Photo by fauxels: https://www.pexels.com/photo/photo-of-women-talking-while-sitting-3182808/
And I’ve found most students want to practice their speaking above anything else. As mentioned in tip 6, they spend too much time at school practicing grammar and doing vocab drills, and rarely get the chance to talk.
At the same time, they’re aware that speaking is massively important for business and travel. It can make the difference when getting a deal done with a foreign company, or when engaging with new friends in a new country.
To get the best out of conversation lessons, read my article 7 Steps for Incredible Private EFL/ESL Conversation Classes.
Another aspect of culture in the Spanish-speaking world is how informal teacher-student relationships can be.
When I first moved to Spain, I was surprised to hear kids calling teachers by their first name instead of “Sir” or “Miss” like in the UK. Some might think it’s unprofessional. Personally, I think it’s just a different approach, and the students still have respect for their teacher.
Your students will want to get to know you. To them, you’re not a service or a tool to improve their English, but a person who they want to interact with.
There’s a fine line to tread here. I think it’s a wonderful thing to develop a healthy rapport with your students. Knowing their personality, likes and dislikes allows you to teach them better.
But be careful. It’s easy to fall into the trap of treating them like a friend in class. It’s fine to have them as friends outside your lessons, but when you’re teaching, there needs to be the mutual understanding that certain boundaries can’t be crossed.
The majority of adults naturally understand this. Kids and teenagers don’t always see these boundaries, and think that because you went for a drink with their parents, you’re like one of the family and they don’t need to treat you like a proper teacher.
To be fair, I rarely encounter this problem. And when I do, it’s simple enough to restore the correct dynamic, because I set clear expectations from the start.
Setting expectations early is vital. To find out my way of doing it, read How to Set Rules & Expectations in Private EFL/ESL Classes.
As long as you maintain these boundaries, allow students to get to know you on a personal basis. If you’re teaching abroad, these connections are a great way to get immersed in a culture and know the locals in the area, while making some long-lasting friends.
This tip is mostly directed to those who are teaching kids. It applies to adults to a certain extent, but generally children have a lot more energy and excitement.
Discipline in Spanish schools is… well, not quite the same as elsewhere. On the whole, Spanish-speaking children are talkative, energetic and outgoing, so it’s hard to get a class of 25 all sitting down in silence for more than ten minutes.
They’re a handful. But that’s not to say they’re bad or disrespectful. Of course, some are. That’s the case in every country. The majority, though, are just effusive and loud.
There’s a spectrum to think about when approaching behaviour management.
At one end, total control. The authoritarian teacher has complete command through punishment and rewards, and students obey their every word immediately. Quiet classes, yes, but resentment and fear don’t create the best learning environment.
Way at the other end of the spectrum, you have the teacher who lets anything go. They’re often excitable themselves, and most classes involve lots of shouting, running, dancing… it’s complete chaos.
Hopefully, you’re thinking that somewhere in the middle is best. You’d be right. But where in the middle? Should you go more towards a strict approach and keep a lid on the rowdy kids? Or should you create a dynamic, enjoyable experience at the expense of some control?
At the end of the day, it’s a personal choice. And the size and nature of your class should affect your decision. Personally, I prefer the energetic atmosphere, especially with Spanish-speaking kids.
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
The reason is, as long as you’ve set your expectations early on, you can take advantage of their energy and channel into positive learning.
Play games with them. Do role-play activities and get them up and about. Have them engaged and focused on what they’re doing because it’s appealing to them rather than forcing them to do it..
It’s easier said than done, and sometimes you have to lower the energy for consistently naughty children, otherwise they’ll take advantage. But overall, I’d much rather embrace their energy than fight it.
Teaching English to Spanish-speakers is intense. If you’re a shy person who prefers calm and quiet study, you may find yourself overwhelmed by group classes, even if there are only 3 or 4 students.
However, if you love meeting new people, having a laugh, and creating dynamic and vibrant lessons, you’re in luck. What often seems like chaos can actually be extremely powerful learning run by a passionate and creative teacher.
I’m Will, a teacher, blogger, and fantasy author. I grew up in England, but now I live in Spain where I teach private English classes to dozens of wonderful students.
