Spanish Classes

At CETLALIC each week's activities focus on a contemporary social, economic, or political issue in Mexico or Latin America as a whole. Some topics are chosen to commemorate the anniversary of an important historic event. Others, like human rights, indigenous cultures, the role of women, health, and education, are tailored to the special interests of the students.

The CETLALIC faculty

At CETLALIC the teaching of Spanish as a second language is of primary importance. All of our teachers are native speakers with professional and special training. All are committed to the CETLALIC concept of introducing culture through the study of language.

Class organization

• Classes are small (maximum five people) and are structured to accommodate the particular level of each student.
• Teachers are rotated each week to give students the opportunity to hear a variety of voices, vocabulary, accents, and emphases.
• All classes, discussions, and lectures are conducted in Spanish (translation is provided during lectures on a limited basis). Students take an active role in the creation of classroom exercises.*
  
• Assignments include reading newspapers and magazines, writing compositions, viewing television, learning songs, shopping, dancing lessons and preparing food among others.

* PLEASE NOTE: CETLALIC offers private classes and is glad to structure individual study programs to suit particular professional, academic or personal interests. We also organize special programs if you have a group of 10 persons or more.

Incoming students

• Students are welcome to start classes on any Monday throughout the year.
  
• Incoming students are interviewed and given a written exam to evaluate their language skills and place them with students at a similar level.
  

The weekly schedule

Classes are from 9:00 to 14:00 hours, divided in two parts:

Mornings:
Every morning, five days a week, there are three hours of intensive language instruction starting at 9:00 a.m. On Mondays, the day starts at 8:45 a.m.(8:30 a.m. in Summer) when the teachers, staff and students of CETLALIC come together to introduce new students and talk about the activities of the week.

Afternoons:

• On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, from 12:20 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., students gather for "practica", analizing articles, increasing vocabulary and having conversation and discussion in Spanish on topics or situations of interest to the group. These sessions are led by CETLALIC teachers.
• On Tuesdays, speakers come from local organizations to talk about their work. Wednesdays at 2:00 or 5:00 p.m. documentary films and videos are shown.
• On Thursdays, students visit local organizations, communities, museums, or cultural groups.
• Friday afternoons students, faculty and staff come together to comment on the week's work and experiences. This is also the moment when we have a little good-bye celebration, called a "despedida" for departing students.

Paulo Freire and His Pedagogy

Paulo Freire was an educator in the 1960's who developed an adult literacy program in desperately poor northeastern Brazil, which eventually formed the basis for his philosophy of education. Paulo Freire refers to the "generative word," which is taken from and applied to the student's own personal reality; as well as about the importance of the student´s active participation in his or her own process.

In essence, this philosophy teaches that "... those who, in learning to read and write, come to a new awareness of selfhood and begin to look critically at the social situation in which they find themselves, often take the initiative in acting to transform the society that thas denied them this opportunity of participation." (Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, NY: The Continuum Publishing Company, 1989, Foreward by Richard Shaull, p.9.)

CETLALIC's Adaptation of Freirean Pedagogy and Methods

The methodology we use is unique in Cuernavaca and, for that matter, in many parts of Latin America and Spain. It is an attempt to steer clear of traditional, mechanistic methods which, often, are also ideologically oppressive. It has not been easy to change what we, as teachers, have been doing for years and what we, as students,experienced in our own educational process. Paulo Freire refers to the "generative word" to be taken from and applied to the student's own personal reality and about the active participation of the student in his or her own process.

The teacher/facilitator's job is to be open, respectful, and above all, humble, maintaining a horizontal (rather than vertical, superior-inferior) relationship with the student. As we are working with people from other cultures, we cannot use "generative words" as such. However, the concept is taken into account in making specific points of grammar and in creating participatory exercises which explain and demonstrate the reality of the Spanish language as manifested in the culture of Mexico. All of this happens through an integration of classroom instruction and direct experiences in the culture.

For us, to teach language is to teach culture; they are inseparable and one cannot either teach or learn one without the other. The "culture" we speak about is not some idyllic concept; it is the present, concrete reality of a people whose heritage,contradictions, and problems are integral to understanding their language.

CETLALIC's commitment to Freire isn't just with our students;
CETLALIC families receive regular workshops on a variety of issues.
This is a workshop on homophobia.

CETLALIC is a founding member of the Mexican Association of Spanish Institutes The objective of the Mexican Association of Spanish Institutes (AMIE) is to maintain the quality of Spanish education and strengthen the development of academic institutions. We also want to raise awareness as to the quality of the education provided and promote the dissemination of Mexican culture in the Mexican United States and abroad, among other goals. The AMIE association of Spanish education institutes signs on with CEPE, the center for teaching Spanish at UNAM (University of Mexico), to be among the institutions authorized to administer the Spanish certification exam for foreigners. Jorge Torres (front), CETLALICs director, is among the signers.   First Annual AMIE Meeting in Cancún, Quintana Roo, México. Among the participants is CETLALIC Director Jorge Torres, (left).

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