I was able to attend an institute class in Spanish this pat week and I took notes during it as an observing participant. I attend this class often and so I was able to be there without anyone questioning why I was there or knowing that I was there to observe and take notes instead of just listen to the discussion. While I was taking notes tried to focus on their interactions with each other. I tried to see what was similar to an English speaking group and what might be different. I also tried to notice things that I might overlook in a normal situation. For example, even though I am not Hispanic, I am LDS and so some of the situation is very normal and natural for me. I wondered what I would notice or observe if I were a non-LDS person coming to the class for the first time.
Here are a few focused thoughts from these observations.
At the beginning of class everyone took the time to introduce themselves. They were from many different places. There was only one other white/American girl there. The other people were from Argentina, several from Mexico, and Peru etc. They were all here for different reasons. Some were going to school and some were working here and hoping to go to school soon. The amount of time that they had been here varied from a few months to several years. In addition, sometimes when there was common ground between two people, they would start a conversation in the middle of their introduction to talk about it. For example, one person talked about serving a mission in California and another who had grown up there for several years started asking questions and talking very specifically about the area etc in the middle of their introduction.
As the lesson continued and the instructor asked questions, the students would just answer out loud. They wouldn't raise their hands for these types of questions. There were also a lot of people who seemed to be familiar with the answers and they would all simultaneously answer out loud. In addition, sometimes a few people would carry on separate conversations while the instructor was talking. The conversations were quiet and non-interruptive and usually short.
There would come points in the lesson when it took on more of a discussion. People would talk back and forth across the table. And then also some would engage in their own private conversations while the main discussion was still going on.
At times the instructor would ask more "thought provoking" questions, or at least questions that required a longer answer. For these questions people would usually raise their hands to share their answers. Most of the answers seemed to stem from personal experiences. One person in particular would often share a scripture as a way to answer the questions but he was the only one I noticed that would do that.
The set up of the classroom was also a bit different. There was one big table and everyone sat around the table in a circle. I think that this made it easier for the whole class to participate in instruction. There were some chairs sat against the walls of the room. When new people came in late (which about half the class showed up late.) Everyone would scoot over to make more room so that person could sit at the table instead of sitting in a chair against the wall.
It is also interesting to note that there were sometimes when a non-native Spanish speaker (there were about 4 of us in the class by the end) would speak and not know how to say a word- most of the time several people volunteered the word for them. Once someone wanted to use the word "hedge" but no one in the class knew how to translate it. Eventually someone looked it up on google. Also, sometimes someone would ask for a word and people would give several different words to translate it. this might be because they are from different countries or it might just be t because some people interpret a word from English to Spanish differently than another person.
I'm not sure that I can draw any concrete conclusions from these observations. But I can attempt to evaluate them a little bit. At the beginning of the class, we introduced ourselves- so the people there didn't really know each other. During the class though there were conversations that were going on and the people didn't necessarily answer by formally raising their hands. As well, many people shared more personal stories about their own lives. This ease in conversation and discussion might come from the common Hispanic background or it might come from the common LDS background- or some other factor. But the people were very open and there were not a lot of pauses or "awkward" silences that I have observed in other similar settings. In addition, wanting to make room for everyone so that they did not have to sit away from the table and the group seems to demonstrate an immediate sense of acceptance in the group.
It is also interesting to see the diversity of the people there. They were from many countries and backgrounds and were there for many different reasons. I could not put a label on the group that they were all students or Hispanic or non-American. Some spoke English well, others did not. Some were more educated and others were not. Some were planning to stay here for a while and others were just visiting for a bit. So, while they were all Latino and seemed to get along very well- they were all very different from each other. I wonder if you would get a group of white Americans in a room like that and they would so easily converse with one another. I don't know.
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