Manuel Cachán, PH.D.

Professor of Spanish

Department of Modern and Classical Languages

Valdosta State University

Valdosta, GA 31689

(229) 333 – 5948

FAX:  (229) 333 - 5948

            Although I have taught diverse courses at different levels of the undergraduate and graduate curriculum, I bring a commitment to active learning to each class.  Teaching Spanish for me is a labor of love.  Love for my own Hispanic culture and language, and love for my students as a way of imparting the skills they will need to cope with the rapidly changing American cultural map.                             

            My method for motivating students is to display genuine interest in them, and create a non-threatening learning environment.  I believe that by fashioning the right atmosphere in the classroom, students will respond accordingly.  We have to remember that language opens up cultural pattern at every minute and that not everyone will react in the same way to this “opening,” or even accept it all.  The idea is not to disturb individual initiative, but to create continuity in the student’s desire to learn the target language.  And because each class has its distinguishable personality, early evaluations of the group psychology can help to tailor a teaching style individual to that group.

            I am not a disciplinarian because I believe that as adult, students should receive the same high respect from me that I believe I expect from them.  I prefer a classroom atmosphere, which uncovers new perspectives for my students over one, which establishes strict discipline but is tense and may lead to rejection of the language.  Learning a foreign language requires the temporary displacement of the student’s own cultural values and language to replace them with another  --a combative environment which makes the student uncomfortable lowers the possibility for this difficult “cultural shift” to occur.

            Because the student is not only learning grammar and pronunciation, but accepting the “Other” as the “Other” truly is, it is sad to still see many textbooks which promote cultural, gender and class stereotypes within the progressive context of this discovery of the other.

            Finally, I believe that as teachers our first priority should be teaching.  Research and writing, of extreme importance in our own intellectual development, should be used to enhance the classroom experience.  My published research and creative writing allow me to enhance my classroom activities by updating the significance of contemporary critical theories and current developments in our professional journals.  Teaching is a giving and receiving, a daily interchange while research is the fuel that perpetuates the teacher’s energy and analytical tools for a fruitful exchange of ideas.  No matter how good a teacher is, if s/he doesn’t have it, s/he can’t give it to his/her students!