I find my students enthusiastic and receptive with respect to our classroom activities. I also feel very much in touch with them, as we share a common language when necessary. In spite of my allowing a role for Spanish in my classroom, students spontaneously use English in class and while working on tasks. They frequently use English with me when they come up with questions or comments after class. I feel the relationship we have developed by my using Spanish occasionally has made my students more eager than usual to tackle the challenges of learning English.
Attendance is excellent and most are doing classwork and homework regularly.
We also have a lot of fun in class. I realize that not all teachers would agree with the position I have put forth here. Some would say that particularly foreign language learners need as much exposure as possible to L2 input during limited class time, the only time in their daily lives when they encounter the language. Others would say that if you only use English, you force your students to try to communicate with you in that language, giving them the opportunity to produce comprehensible output and negotiate meaning. I, of course, agree that English should be the primary vehicle of communication in the English classroom and that you should give students ample opportunities to process English receptively as well as to produce and negotiate meaning in the language.