Within the field of foreign language instruction, the term "occupational" to describe a type of Spanish or a kind of Spanish language teaching is relatively new. Indeed, occupational Spanish is a fledgling but important and highly relevant field of Spanish instruction. In the 1970s and 1980s, several major textbook companies, realizing the growing need for adult occupational Spanish programs, published various "Spanish for special purposes" textbooks, but these were based on a traditional, grammar-based, four-skills system that did not serve well the non-traditional students who wanted to learn Spanish for the workplace.
Occupational Spanish has its own set of instructional postulates, axioms, and methods. Unlike traditional academic Spanish classes, occupational Spanish courses are based primarily on psychomotor skills (as opposed to cognitive skills) and memory burns. It is non-grammar based, and its content is highly focused and job-specific. Reading and writing Spanish are eliminated as real-world goals. The amount of material to be mastered in any course is limited, and the amount of time required is of short duration (usually 12-24 hours).
Perhaps the best way to quickly understand the basics of occupational Spanish is to compare it with academic Spanish. The chart below is a summary of the most salient differences.
| Academic Spanish | Occupational Spanish |
|---|---|
| • Diffused | • Focused |
| • Long periods of study | • Short periods of study |
| • Teenage or college-age language | • Adult language |
| • Grammar | • Non-grammar |
| • Exotic topics (taking a trip to Machu Pichu, visiting the Rain Forest, etc.) | • Familiar topics (cashiers cashing a check, police making a car stop, etc.) |
| • Big "C" Culture (art and architecture, literary works, etc.) | • Little "c" culture (alternate/folk medicine in the Latino community, etc.) |
| • Spanish for living or traveling abroad | • Spanish for the U.S.A. |
| • Spanish for make-believe (unlikely activities such as returning a book to a Spanish university library) | • Real-world Spanish (real life activities such as police learning to arrest people in Spanish) |
| • More is less | • Less is more |
| • Humanities-based curriculum | • Vo-tech skills-based curriculum |
| • Requires lots of motivating | • Requires little motivating |