Abstract
This chapter analyzes teaching strategies that English-speaking Language Assistants (LAs) enrolled as students in the ‘Teach and Learn in Spain' Program at Instituto Franklin-Universidad de Alcalá, considering their curriculum designs developed as Master's Theses between 2014 and 2017. It is based on the assumption that they focus on the aspects they perceive as essential for developing Spanish students' oral communication skills in English in the context of their relationship with other types of skills that are specific for the 21st century in particular. Specifically, after describing the basic context for developing competences in the Spanish and North American education systems, the chapter analyzes several aspects: the teaching strategies their academic papers focus on, the proposal of guides and guidelines as a strategy to solve difficulties, and some of the other types of solutions they provide to motivate the students and improve specific skills.
TopIntroduction
The research carried out in relation to Language Assistants’ (LAs) research papers in Spain is very scarce. Moreover, it is even more difficult to find studies that address the development of skills as a strategy approached in research papers. However, studies such as Vitalaru and Vescan (2017, 2018, 2019; Vitalaru, 20191), show some of the difficulties and perceptions of North American (hereinafter American) students who live and study in Spain while acting as LAs. These students’ profile is very specific considering that they both carry out their practicum as LAs in bilingual schools in Madrid (Spain) and attend classes in one of the Master’s in the ‘Teach and Learn in Spain’ Program at Instituto Franklin-Universidad de Alcalá (IF-UAH). This program trained between 60 -100 American2 students each year between 2009 and 2014 and between 100 and 160between 2014 and 2018 as well as placed each of them in a bilingual school in the region of Madrid for one academic year. The studies mentioned previously establish a current need to identify differences regarding education systems, which seems to be important for how they affect the perspective that LAs (as MA students themselves) have on the use of their teaching potential as LAs or even their own contribution to the need of improvement of Spanish students’ oral communication skills.
The first objective of this chapter is to identify the different types of solutions/teaching strategies that English-speaking LAs propose in their Master’s Theses written while studying and working as LAs in Spain, which included the design of a course. The course proposed in their Master’s Theses aimed at developing potential foreign language learners’ specific skills and had to include both the curriculum and a selection of lesson plans and materials. The second objective is to establish whether there is a connection between the strategies the LAs perceive as useful for solving a problem and the training philosophy of their home country regarding the development of certain skills. The general findings of a previous study (Vitalaru & Vescan, 2018) suggest that the courses they designed between 2014 and 2017 as part of their Master’s Theses during their studies in Spain focus mostly on the development of specific skills such as creativity, self-esteem, personal and professional skills, leadership, among others. This shows that they do not consider the acquisition of vocabulary or content knowledge from a particular field/school subject like Biology, Math, Language, etc. as a priority. This type of content subjects are currently studied as part of the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) approach to the teaching of English in Spain.3 While successful in terms of linguistic knowledge, among other positive results of the programs, the teaching methods used by Spanish content teachers in most schools in the region of Madrid seem to be viewed by LAs as ‘traditional’ and still characterized by the intensive use of textbook and the grammar-translation teaching method, thus neglecting other skills they would need to succeed specifically considering oral communication in English (Vitalaru & Vescan, 2019; Sauciuc, 2019a y b). This perception seems to contribute to the LAs’ need for developing the type of skills they mentioned in their Theses, which will be discussed in the Analysis section. Ultimately, this study is based on the assumption that the LAs focus on the aspects they perceive as essential for developing their Spanish/foreign pupils’ oral communication skills in English while living in Spain. The apparent scarce focus on this type of skills in the Spanish education system seems to be easily identified when comparing the daily lessons of the Spanish pupils in bilingual classes in Madrid during the academic year in which they act as LA with the skills the LAs are more familiar with considering their native country’s education system. This is the case for the 21st century skills such as creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, communication, and collaboration (P21a, 2007, p. 2).
In this context the specific research questions of this study are:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Strategy: Plan that allows students to focus on the aspects that they consider fundamental to develop a skill based on their own research and experience. In other words, ‘strategy’ signifies what the students perceive as an effective way/plan to develop a skill.
Approach: Teaching philosophy that focuses on learning objectives and is reflected in a combination of methods and strategies.
LA: Student enrolled in the ‘Teach& Learn in Spain’ program and acting as Language assistant to a CLIL teacher in a bilingual school in the region of Madrid.
Skill: Specific ability that shows the application of knowledge acquired previously in specific settings and circumstances.
Competence: Combination of skills, attitudes, and knowledge developed over a long period of time that allows to act accordingly in different situation depending on the different circumstances involved.