# Learning English in Spain



## Pesky Wesky (May 10, 2009)

I found this article from the New York Times interesting - I hope a few others do too.
Full article here
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/world/europe/30iht-spain30.html

Here are a few selected paragraphs...

MADRID — Facing high unemployment at home, more Spaniards are seeking work abroad. But they are confronting a significant hurdle: their poor foreign-language skills, in particular a lack of English. 

 There are early suggestions that the next generation will have sufficient communications skills to work outside Spain: More children are now being taught by English speakers as part of their regular class work. 

 One place where educational changes are under way is Madrid. A program run by the regional government has made about a third of primary state schools bilingual. 

Bilingual??? At the moment I'm not sure if they are because the teachers, for however much training they receive cannot become bilingual overnight. I would imagine that in 5 years more the change would be more "real"

 While there are no reliable comparative statistics, language-school owners like Richard Vaughan even argue that “the level of English is lower than 15 years ago,” reflecting a general decline in education standards in Spain.

Don't agree with this at all, but some of you may remember that I don't agree with a lot that Mr. Vaughan says, nor the way he teaches. (See this thread http://www.expatforum.com/expats/sp...6226-teaching-english-spain-7.html#post178355posts 61 - 67!!)

 
 Spanish politicians are also among the worst in western Europe in terms of English skills. Neither the head of the Socialist government, Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, nor the leader of the main opposition Popular party, Mariano Rajoy, speaks English. 

 The bilingual schools rely largely on Spanish teachers who get a monthly bonus of €180, about $255, for making the language switch. The schools also have recruited assistants who are native English speakers — often Americans on an extended university break or sent to Spain through an education scholarship like the Fulbright program. 
 Between 30 percent and 50 percent of the class work is in English, including the science that was being taught last week at the Rosa Luxemburgo school. 
 In another classroom, Felipe Alejandro Luna Merlo, an 8-year-old whose parents emigrated from Bolivia, was finding it more difficult to assimilate human anatomy in English, and struggling to understand general questions about his upbringing. Still, he sounded eager to progress, saying that he was also teaching his father, a waiter, how to say “the numbers and the colors” in English because “I really want him to learn like me.” 

 Whether the children always get to hear the Queen’s English is debatable, however, and even Ms. Figar acknowledges that some teachers could improve their own English. Still, she said, more than 90 percent of the children have so far completed their bilingual primary school program by passing English language tests set by Cambridge University. 
 “These tests are the best way to measure our success, rather than discussing whether some teachers have good grammar but poor pronunciation,” she said. 

Poor old Felipe Alejandro. This is what I fear is happening in a lot of classes. The children who have extra classes in academies after school, or holiday abroad may be picking things up, but those who are learning from scratch may encounter lots of difficulties, and their teachers are not always qualified to help them out... What I mean is the divide between children who do well and those who don't may become wider. Although it would be interesting to see how the growing level of English is reflected in the Cam Exams. Anybody have any info?

 The economic crisis is also forcing more adult Spaniards to return to the classroom — and not just to learn English. Applications to learn German this spring semester have risen 15 percent from a year ago, according to the Madrid office of the Goethe-Institut, which promotes German culture abroad. That follows a recent recruitment initiative by the German government to add about 500,000 engineers from other countries to keep its economy growing. 
 A reflection of the times we live in. We should be learning German or Chinese.


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## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

Very interesting, thanks for posting. Our village colegio went bilingual last year, though the official English teacher couldn´t really speak English! She was teaching them some really strange pronunciation, like "have" rhyming with SHAVE. She´s gone now ...

They employed a lovely French-Canadian language assistant, who the kids all adore. I suppose they will have an even more interesting accent now, but at least she makes it interesting and fun for them.


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