Reality Spanish® for Law Enforcement

Are your officers able to control a dangerous situation by using spontaneous Spanish commands and directives?

Are children being used to translate basic personal information to officers?

Course description:

P.O.S.T. training credit available to certified Colorado peace officers for their participation.  Reality Spanish® for Law Enforcement is P.O.S.T. course CM0001.

In Reality Spanish® for Law Enforcement the language is geared to daily situations encountered by law enforcement personnel on the street. This 16 - 30 hr* course provides the language necessary to safely and efficiently control low and high-risk situations with Spanish speaking public and give directives and ask questions relevant to domestic violence and other target scenarios. Commands are included which are used frequently on the street. Vocabulary is based on interactions with community members in emergency and non-emergency situations. Common questions are included along with appropriate responses. "Bites" of language are internalized and developed through directive scenarios, dialogs and narratives. Instruction focuses on speaking and listening, and a 'mix and match' approach encourages the customizing of language by students, resulting in spontaneous speech from the first class. 

*The course is adjusted in scope for 16 to 30 hours of instruction depending on the number of training hours available per agency, and can be taught on-site or at a central, regional location. See class formats below. All classes are taught by Certified Reality Language® Trainers. These trainers are all bilingual and have completed a rigorous three-day Train the Trainers Workshop. In this workshop, these Trainers are empowered with the techniques, methods, and resources to teach Reality Spanish® for Law Enforcement classes. All new Trainers are observed and supported by a Trainer Mentor teaching their first course to ensure compliance with all of LingoLynx LLC's stringent instructional standards.

Methodology:

Students will experience multi-sensory learning activities in the classroom (through the Context-based Optimized Language Acquisition system {COLA®}) which expose them to abundant comprehensible input of the Spanish encountered on the street. Classroom instruction incorporates real-life scenarios using props such as patrol cars, handcuffs, and unloaded weapons to ensure instant recall in the field. Activities include: physical movements and gestures, drawing and acting to demonstrate comprehension; spontaneous responses to questions in interrogation and interview settings; active small group and partner work; written and oral assignments. 

Participants receive interactive student learning materials which are fully coordinated with the classroom instruction. (See below for details.)

Goal:

To improve officer safety and control situations efficiently when dealing with Spanish-speaking community members.

Training Objectives:

Upon completion officers will be able to:

• ask and answer questions to gather personal information
• give commands in high and low risk interventions incl. verbal judo strategies
• describe crime scenes incl. clothing, locations, times, weapons
• describe victims & suspects in various scenarios, incl. domestic violence
• clarify cultural misunderstanding related to police & public

 Class delivery formats:

• 30 hours - 12 face-to-face classes containing 2 ½ hours each of direct instruction
• 24 hours - 6 face-to-face classes of 4 hours each of direct instruction.
• 15 hours - 2 consolidated block days of classroom instruction (can be doubled for 30 hrs instruction)

In addition, each student is expected to spend a minimum of four hours per module interacting with the CD-ROM materials, research components, and follow-up assignments.

Credit: 1 - 2 college credits or 1.5 - 3.0 CEUs (currently available through Adams State College, Alamosa, CO)

Course Content:

Key Topics:

Courtesy, personal information gathering, dates, times, locations, crime scene & personal descriptions, low & high risk stops, verbal judo, domestic violence & first responder healthcare terms.

Key phrases/commands:

Examples: What is your address and phone number? Tell me what happened. Call me if you have any more trouble. Stay here until an interpreter comes. Where were you last night? What did he look like? Turn off your car and throw the keys out the window. Did he hit you? I can't move. Are there any other injuries?

Scenarios/dialogs:

Gathering personal information from a victim; An interview with a witness to a crime; Description of a suspect; Citation for a drunk driver; High risk talk down; Answering a domestic violence call; First responder to car accident.

 Cultural topics:

Immigration; migrant workers; importance of family; low rider culture; Latino attitude towards religion & institutions; border issues.

 Grammar:

NOTE: Grammar is an integrated part of this course as it is relevant to the accurate reproduction of the target, context-based language for law enforcement personnel. Specific grammatical structures are taught as their use becomes familiar to the students from working with class stories, dialogs and activities. In class, reference is consistently and naturally made to verb form patterns, noun-article-adjective agreements, tense usage and accuracy of the written form. In addition to class work with grammar, the articulated student learning materials (interactive CD-ROM, workbook and Audio CDs) have detailed grammatical explanations, examples, activities, and web links, to extend student learning out of class.

Verbs: regular AR, ER, IR verbs in present and preterite tenses; ser and estar in present and imperfect; tener - to have, hunger, pain, thirst, fear; ir in present and preterite; querer and quisiera; poder in present and imperfect; imperatives; present participles.

Constructions: article-noun agreement; contractions using 'a' and 'de'; interrogatives; Verbal Judo

Course requirements:

1. Participation. Students will be graded on their engaged participation in and readiness for the classes. Instructor observation and student interaction will be key grading procedures.
2. Attendance. Students are required to attend all sessions; absence of no more than 15% total class time will be allowed for a pass.
3. Assignments. These are written and spoken: written and spoken story per module, sketch of crime scene, command phrases, etc.
4. Final assessment: In a live simulation, students will perform either: high risk talk down, domestic violence call, or first responder scene, subject to spontaneous reactions from instructor/actors.

 Textbooks/Materials:

Reality Spanish® for Law Enforcement:  the interactive learning materials are required for all students and contain a multi-media CD-ROM program, printed text/workbook, and 3-pack of Audio CDs. These materials are fully coordinated to the classroom instruction, contain the six modules of course content, and follow exactly the learning targeted in this course. Authors: Gaye R. Jenkins, Ed. D., & Molly P. Schneider, M.Ed.