Traditionally languages have been taught or presented in a linear or sequential manner. If the students "learn" information sequentially, they can only recall it in that sequence. Every Spanish teacher has seen the student who can say "cinco" only by counting "uno, dos, tres, cuatro…" or the student who does not know the meaning of miércoles without first saying "lunes, martes…" Although it often seems logical and helpful to teach materials in a sequential way, sequential learning must be "unlearned" or "randomized" before the student can truly acquire that aspect of the language.

Global or random learning more closely imitates first language acquisition. Most educators agree, however, that due to the limitations of the classroom, there is not enough time to teach in a totally random way. One can, however, randomize within certain structured perimeters. For example, a child learning his native language internalizes the meanings of pronouns over months and years, acquiring them randomly according to the context of his world. In the classroom, however, the teacher designates a certain time frame for teaching subject pronouns, but provides language experiences that allow the student to internalize the meanings of pronouns randomly within a meaningful context. Hence, the creation of one of our favorite seemingly contradictory terms, "guided randomness."

If you want to read about randomizing some simple lessons not dealing with verbs, check these out.

Lesson 7: Random Numbers
Lesson 11: Teaching the Spanish Alphabet
Lesson 14: Days of the Week
Lesson 16: Number Practice

Of course there are exceptions to every rule.

I found it very effective to teach the countries and capitals of Latin America sequentially with my cassette El Rock de las Capitales.

The only problem is that even though I know my students will never forget the capitals of these countries, I also know they are doomed to repeating the entire list if anyone says one of these capitals in their presence. I went with Justo Lamas to help him get his Texas driver’s license. When the young man helping us came to “Place of Birth” and saw “Buenos Aires, Argentina,” he started chanting “Buenos Aires, Argentina-Montevideo, Uruguay-Brasilia, Brasil, etc.” He apologized and explained that his high school Spanish teacher had this neat tape that taught the capitals of Latin America. I decided not to identify myself as the voice on the tape because I would prefer for him to continue visualizing some gorgeous young girl chanting to him.

This type of teaching is the topic of our workshop BUILDING ARTIFICIAL REALITIES. In practice, many texts and methodologies relegate "communicative activities" to the end of the lesson as a way to practice the grammar and vocabulary the students have learned. In the Building Artificial Realities workshop, we show teachers how communication can be the "vehicle for learning", rather than something to be practiced at the end of the chapter. Several of these lessons will be explained during this Virtual Workshop.

Throughout the ages (at least as far back as I can remember, my 9th grade Spanish class in 1957) VERBS have been the most sequential aspect of language teaching. One tense is "mastered" before the next is presented. In addition, the forms within the tenses are often taught sequentially by means of "conjugation," defined here as "the listing of verb forms in a specific order." Correct forms of the verbs should be learned, but not in a memorized ORDER. The students need to internalize the meanings of the forms rather than memorize them.

Imagine the parents of a new-born child in a Spanish-speaking country trying to limit themselves to speaking with only regular -AR verbs before using any other types--and teaching the entire conjugation of the present tense of one certain verb before communicating with any others. We laugh at this example and realize instinctively that it is totally unnatural, but nevertheless this is exactly how we have been taught to teach verbs.

We beat to death one -AR verb, hablar, before we present other -AR verbs. Then after the students have "mastered" those endings [read "mastered" as "memorized'] we move on to the sacrificial -ER verb, comer. Once this verb is learned, we can practice MORE
-ER verbs. Then we move on to the final set of verbs, the forgotten ones, the -IR verbs, represented by vivir.

Why?
Because that is the way it has always been done.
We are going to show you a better way.

We promise you that even though this might seem confusing at this point, it will start making sense as we progress through the workshop and as you start using your Verb Wall.

The endings on the Verb Wall are presented sequentially in the traditional conjugation order, but the wall is intended to be used randomly to access appropriate verb forms as needed for communication.