By Sara Martin
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE

Follow the music through the Audubon Clubhouse on a Monday afternoon, and you may find yourself in the middle of a Spanish lesson.

Not a typical Spanish lesson, mind you, but a toe-tapping, dancing-in-your-seat sort of affair that makes you want to join right in.

Such is the brainchild of Eagle’s Trace resident Renate Donovan who teaches the class.

Trained educator
As a teacher, Donovan is a natural. She was the foreign language coordinator for Spring Branch Independent School District for 25 years and was constantly looking for new ways to help students learn a second language.

“I once created a conga line to help students in a German class learn adverbs,” recalls Donovan.

Born in Austria, Donovan learned German as her first language. After her family moved to Brazil when she was 11, she learned Portuguese. Three years later her family moved to Texas, where Donovan acquired English, her third language. Later she studied Spanish at the University of Houston.

Donovan’s daughter, Patti Lozano, is multilingual like her mother. She is also a talented musician who writes original songs using common Spanish vocabulary words.

Collaboration between mother and daughter led to an innovative teaching method for the foreign language students under Donovan’s tutelage. Using music as the basis for teaching, Lozano led students via satellite in songs that reinforced conversational Spanish.

“The songs stuck,” says Donovan. “The music helped them remember the vocabulary more easily.”

Now Donovan is using the same technique to help residents of Eagle’s Trace learn a second language.

Different setting, similar results
Two years ago Donovan put out the call for residents with little to no background in Spanish who were interested in learning the language. Several eager students showed up for the first class, and The Spanish Eagles, Las Aquilas Españoles, were born.