Sustaining Academic Spanish Under Time Pressure
A student writing a 40-minute extended response in Spanish has strong ideas but recurring language problems under time pressure: overuse of 'muy' and 'mucho', comma splices, inconsistent tense sequencing when moving between the text's present and past events, and English-influenced collocations ('hacer una decisión', 'en el otro lado'). In a practice essay the ideas were graded well but language control pulled the mark down. The student has 8 minutes at the end planned for checking and wants a prioritised revision strategy rather than a general instruction to 'improve accuracy'.
1. Prioritise the student's language issues for an 8-minute end-check, and explain the reasoning behind the order.
Read the worked answer
Prioritise by frequency × damage to meaning × fixability in the time available.
- High-frequency, low-effort fixes first: 'muy'/'mucho' overuse and English-influenced collocations. These recur many times, are quick to spot, and each correction lifts the register. Replace 'muy importante' with 'decisivo', 'fundamental'; fix 'hacer una decisión' → 'tomar una decisión'; 'en el otro lado' → 'por otro lado' / 'en cambio'.
- Tense sequencing next: errors here can make analysis ambiguous (is the student describing the text's action or the author's technique?). A quick scan of verbs in analytical sentences catches most.
- Comma splices last: they are frequent but usually do not obscure meaning, and repairing them well takes longer than the time allows.
Rationale: in 8 minutes the student cannot fix everything, so they should target errors that are numerous, quick to correct, and register-sensitive - maximising mark gain per minute. Deep structural rewriting is not feasible at this stage; it belongs in planning.
2. Show three before/after corrections in Spanish that demonstrate the prioritised fixes.
Read the worked answer
Model corrections:
- Collocation/register: Antes: 'Es muy importante que el autor hace una decisión clara.' → Después: 'Resulta decisivo que el autor tome una decisión clara.' (fixes 'muy importante', the collocation 'hacer una decisión', and the mood after 'que'.)
- Tense sequencing: Antes: 'El narrador describe la escena y luego se marcha, lo que muestra su miedo.' → Después: 'El narrador describe la escena y luego se marcha -dos acciones del relato-, lo que revela su miedo.' (clarifies that both verbs belong to the fictional present, and replaces the vague 'muestra' with a sharper analytical verb.)
- Comma splice / connector: Antes: 'El poema es corto, usa pocas imágenes, el efecto es de contención.' → Después: 'El poema es breve y emplea pocas imágenes; el efecto, por tanto, es de contención.' (splices repaired with a semicolon and a logical connector, and 'corto' upgraded to 'breve'.)
Why these are the right targets: each correction addresses a recurring pattern, each is fast to apply in an end-check, and together they raise register, clarify reference, and tighten cohesion - the three areas where the student was losing marks despite strong ideas.