The Somos, Vamos, and Nous sommes curriculum are filled with stories, and the characters in those stories have a wide variety of names. Although the stories are used in French classes and Spanish classes, the characters often don’t have names that we’d think of as French or Spanish names. Teachers sometimes wonder… why?
First of all, certain examples are from real life – they were the names of my actual students in Anchorage who played the role of the characters in our class-created TPRS® stories. Even beyond that, we use many different names – and not all “authentic” Spanish or French ones – for three big reasons.
Story setting
Many stories are not set in or written about Spanish speaking or Francophone countries or communities, so it wouldn't necessarily be authentic to use only Spanish speaking names. When the stories or articles are about Spanish speaking countries, we aim to use names that are authentic to the setting.
Avoiding stereotypes
That being said, although there are common names among Spanish speaking individuals, there are many native Spanish speakers who do not have "typical" (or stereotypical) Latino or Hispanic names. And, many Spanish speakers belong to different cultural groups and have names that reflect their heritage. There are indigenous people, immigrants, migrants, and their children who conduct all or part of their everyday lives using the Spanish language and whose names represent other linguistic groups. Using many different names helps us avoid the trap of only exposing students to the stereotypical names and people from Spanish speaking countries.
Authentic Communication
We want students to see themselves as people who can communicate authentically using the language, no matter what their cultural-linguistic background is. Including names of people from many different cultural backgrounds helps all students to see themselves represented throughout the curriculum.
Impact to comprehension and fluency
Some teachers have questioned the use of different names because of its impact on story comprehension. This criticism is valid when students don’t recognize names as names, which negatively impacts comprehension. And when students don't know how to pronounce the names (even if it's just with the voice in their head), it impacts fluency. Of course, the same would be true if we were to try and use less stereotypical yet authentic Spanish speaking names, such as Xochitl. Keep in mind that different names will be familiar and unfamiliar to different groups of students, and so including many different names throughout the program gives many different groups of students the chance to feel seen and included.
Tips for supporting comprehension
Depending on the complexity of the text, your students' level, and how you are engaging with it, you might consider identifying the characters in advance for your students. For example, you could begin with something like, “En este cuento, hay tres personas: Teakia, su mamá y una profesora. Teakia es una chica. Es una persona." (In this story, there are three people: Teakia, her mom, and a teacher. Teakia is a girl. She is a person.)
Overall we believe that the benefits of using many different names outweigh challenges they may cause to the reader.
