Teaching Spanish by Radio

Abstract

THE principal aim of the radio course in Spanish, as taught over WOSU, the Ohio State University station, under the direction of Professor W. S. Hendrix, has been to offer to the listening public an elementary course in the Spanish language, and at the same time to present general information about Spanish and Spanish-American civilization and culture. Those who have done the broadcasting have always borne in mind that while verbs and adjectives may be forgotten by the pupil, there is a certain amount of information regarding the Spanish-speaking world which is of decided cultural value, and which, if attractively presented, will never be forgotten. Thus we have hoped to achieve in this course the ultimate aim of all college education. For this reason, we have not hesitated to introduce certain materials which, while having a direct bearing on the subject, have nevertheless deviated somewhat from conventional lines in modern foreign language teaching. Sometimes a radio professor forgets that educational stations do not thrive on well-conducted and technically correct courses alone, but that they must take into account the number of listeners attracted as well. While there is no need of turning a radio class into a humorous program, experience shows that variety of appeal must make up for certain characteristic limitations of radio teaching, and that by inserting entertaining features we attract occasional listeners, a factor of considerable importance from the point of view of the program director. So, in the Spanish course given over WOSU in the winter and spring of 1934 and during the academic year 1935-36 at 10:30 each schoolday morning, we tried to appeal to as large an audience as possible by talking about everything Spanish, without neglecting the text, which was the real subject-matter of the course.