Speak Spanish Naturally: Exploring Tenses with Audio Slides and Sound
As someone who has lived and breathed foreign languages, I’ve always been fascinated by how immersion can transform language learning. When I spent a couple of years in Mexico, Spanish became part of my everyday life—on the street, in conversations, and even at the grocery store. That constant exposure helped me read, understand, and speak it fluently in a very natural way.
My experience with French, however, was very different. After four years of college classes filled with grammar drills, literature, and culture, fluency didn’t really click until I spent just a few weeks in France. Suddenly, everything I had learned became second nature.
These two experiences have shaped how I teach today. While I appreciate the structure of grammar ✏️, I also believe that real progress comes when students experience language in action 🎧.
That’s why I’ve created a new Spanish assignment that blends structured practice with real-world application—and I’m excited to share it with you!
I’ve written about this in previous posts, especially when discussing how embedded audio 🎧 can make language lessons more accessible and engaging for all learners.
📝 What the Assignment Covers
This activity focuses on two essential tenses in everyday Spanish: present and future. Students will work with five fill-in-the-blank paragraphs, each containing sentences where they must choose the correct verb form from two options.
For example:
me levanto vs. me levantaré
Each paragraph is on a slide with embedded audio narration that I recorded to model clear pronunciation and intonation. These two tenses were paired intentionally because native speakers often shift between talking about daily routines and future plans in the same conversation:
Cada mañana me levanto temprano.
Mañana saldré de viaje.
By practicing both together, students begin to recognize context clues and learn to speak more naturally and confidently.
📖 Real-Life Language in Action
The paragraphs mimic authentic, everyday situations. For instance:
Cada mañana yo ________ (me levanto / me levantaré) temprano y ______ (desayuno / desayunaré) con mi familia.
Then it transitions to:
La próxima semana, ________ (visito / visitaré) Madrid.
This structure helps students toggle between tenses seamlessly, reinforcing both grammar knowledge and critical thinking about time and intention. The result? A bridge between textbook learning and real conversation.
🎲 How Students Can Practice
The activity is flexible and works well in different classroom setups:
Group Challenge: Students collaborate on a digital whiteboard, choosing answers together and earning points.
Individual Practice: Students complete a PDF handout, then use the slides and audio to self-correct.
Interactive Whiteboard: Call one student up to write answers while the rest of the class works along.
Looking for tips on adding audio to slides? Check out my guide on Using Audio in Google Slides for Language Learning.
🔊 Why This Approach Works
This assignment is multisensory, which means it taps into all the major skills students need:
✔ Reading
✔ Writing
✔ Listening
✔ Speaking
Take this example:
Hoy ______ (llueve / lloverá) mucho, pero mañana el clima ______ (está / estará) bueno.
Hearing the correct pronunciation while reading and writing reinforces how native speakers stress verbs to show meaning.
🌈 The Takeaway
By combining grammar drills with interactive, real-life practice, this assignment helps students:
Build confidence with verb tenses
Improve pronunciation
Engage with their classmates
Communicate authentically
From describing routines (estudia, comemos) to making future plans (estudiará, comeremos), students will leave this activity feeling prepared and empowered to use Spanish naturally.
I can’t wait to see my students grow into confident, fluent speakers! Come Check out Our New Spanish Audio Google Slide Resources
