Reflection - Luz and Ana - 4th Session

Tutoría

The idea of a tutoría is something that has struck me about the Spanish education system.  We don’t have it in such a formal sense in the UK, or certainly not when I was at school.  Every year group had a form tutor, but we spent maybe 15 minutes with them every morning for the attendance record.  I think it’s a wonderful idea, but judging by the reaction from my classmates, it seems it’s not taken advantage of fully.  We are very lucky as language teachers in that our area is truly ‘transversal’.  We can tackle all sorts of issues in our classes, but also take the tutoría as an opportunity to improve communication skills in a foreign language and increase contact time with the language.  Tutorías, should at the end of the day, promote ‘life skills’.  But what are life skills?  It’s a very elastic concept, and really depends on cultural norms and expectations of society.  Do we want students with life skills for the workplace? Or life skills to be happy human beings?  Nobody seems to agree on the concept, however, I rather like this infographic on the topic:

I think, in essence, life skills should be those that equip the students to adopt positive behaviour to deal with the demands and challenges of life.  

PMAR

I think after hearing Luz talk about PMAR classes, we’re all excited to try it!  It seems to me a very rewarding type of teaching.  The keyword with PMAR classes is diversity.  The students come from very diverse backgrounds - they could be children of immigrants with the ability but not the language skills to get along in the school, they could have problems with social integration because of personal problems or family problems or they could be completely demotivated for any number of reasons.  They will in turn, have very diverse ways of learning, many will have got out of the habit of learning entirely, never mind know what their best style of learning is.  The teacher, for their part, needs to provide a diverse range of activities to stimulate and interest the students and to cater for these diverse needs.

Dealing with motivation is paramount and thus, small, attainable and demonstrable achievements should be the targets.  These students need immediate results from their effort to show that it hasn’t been in vain. Large-scale projects are simply not sustainable with this type of class (yet.) It is important though, that they don’t feel isolated from the rest of the school, so involvement in whole-school projects is vital, such as important days, (Galician Literature Day, International Women’s day, World Book day) etc. They should also have access to the English Language Assistant if the school has one - it will do wonders for their confidence.

Finding materials for these groups is difficult, partly from a lack of books aimed at these groups, and partly because of the diversity within the group - some may find it easy while others struggle with the same material.  While dealing with motivation, the teacher should make them feel comfortable but also push them enough to make them progress.  

Auxiliar de Conversa

Having a native language assistant in a school can be a wonderful thing both for the students and for the assistants themselves.  However, it’s not always a bed of roses.  Less than enthusiastic assistants (or indeed teachers) can impact negatively on the experience.  My own experience as an assistant in France many moons ago actually put me off teaching entirely (because of the teachers rather than the students) until relatively recently!  I think one important drawback to the programme is the lack of training.  Here and in France, the assistants get an induction day, but they are lucky if that includes anything that could be of use to them in a classroom.  Of course, some assistants are very lucky to have supportive teachers who guide them and give them ideas for classes, other teachers are simply too over-stretched to take the time to properly look after the assistant. There are so many benefits to having an assistant, but something has to be done to make the most out of their time there.

CLIL

Finally, CLIL. After our session with Ana, I am reserving judgement on the topic until I can see it for myself.  I think it’s a wonderful idea, and undoubtedly it has many advantages. It means that language is learned in a real way and the relationship between meaning and form becomes clearer. I suppose, in many ways, my experience in this masters has been close to a CLIL experience, minus the scaffolding.  I certainly understand a lot more Galego than when I started but I’m not exactly sure I would have coped with completely new concepts.  Fortunately, I had some theoretical knowledge of education already; otherwise I would have been quite lost.  

Here is where my doubts about CLIL are; I worry about the “cognitive overload” of learning new language and new content at the same time.  John Sweller, who coined the term cognitive overload, says “The working memory load of learning a new language at the same time as learning a content area is likely to overwhelm working memory.”  I also worry that we are ‘empezando la casa por el tejado’ - In the private/concertado sector, there is an expectation on teachers of certain non-linguistic subjects to suddenly get a B2 or higher in a language to teach their subject.  A Cambridge certificate (or Trinity, or EOI etc.) does not cater for teaching a topic in the language, and while I understand that there is some training available to teachers wanting to teach their subjects, it seems like there is very little at the moment.  

 As I say, the jury is out on this one until I can see it with my own eyes but I think it is a beautiful idea.  

 https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/tes-talks-john-sweller#