lynnxa

we've had things like that - and incorrect spellings marked as correct

I once returned all my dd's homework to the teacher with MY corrections on it - and a note asking for an appointment to see her


she was lovely - but admitted to me that she felt completely out of her depth in a school with so many kids & parents who have English as a first language..............

cricketman

Its easy for us on here who are not bilingual (well, maybe JFLS comes closest) to say that language teachers must be. In reality there are very few bilingual people around. Schools will have to make do with the best they have.

The best you can hope for is a competant and humble teacher who recognises that they may not know everything. For vocabulary and pronunciation a teacher only has to pick up a reference book.

My chemistry professor at uni said that a good scientist or teacher is not determined by how much you know, but by how much you recognise you do not know. As long as you know how to find the right answer within a few minutes then you will always solve the problem. No need to have everything in the memory banks.

btw, I still think bilingual schools are nothing more than gimmicks But of course the parents have the right to choose them if they wish

jojojojojo

Hhhmm, I'm not so sure and time will tell, but certainly the spanish kids at my sons international school all speak english perfectly - well certainly the ones who've been thru the school and are now in secondary. You'd never know to hear them talk that they're not english. But of course most of the teachers are english, so theres no alternative but to learn. Will this work and be the same for Spanish kids in a biligual school, where the teachers are not totally fluent? As long as there are British kids there I guess it will be ok, but what is it going to teach the British kids??? Its probably a better option for 10+ than a state school and the curiculum is spanish. Altho its fee paying, so is there much difference from an international school?

Jo xx

JLFS

Very good points made.

A teacher does have to be bilingual to be able to teach, but one thing that does cause problems if the teacher is not, is when the teacher marks as wrong something that the pupil has done right.

By doing that the child gets confused and begins to doubt their own abilities in their own language.

This happened to me in school in the UK, we had spanish lessons, we were asked to name items of clothing.

One was a "bomber type demin jacket", I said the word was "cazadora", another was a "cardigan" I said it was a rebeca or a chaqueta.

The teacher said the cazadora was a chaqueta, and the cardigan was a chaqueta de lana.

She said that rebeca was a girls name and nothing else. I knew I was right, but I felt such a fool being singled out like that. Then I began to duobt myself, and sort of lost confidence in my native language ability.

So before a teacher marks wrong something that a native speaker has said or written they should be very sure that they know what they are doing.

cricketman

The Spanish kids may speak very good English but I'd be worried that their Spanish education will be second rate. Given that the majority of them will want to live and work in Spain that is the most important thing.

If a kid likes languages then they will learn them, as long as there is a culture of learning within the family, the school and the community.

I went to a comp school in the UK where most kids didnt want to learn, they didnt want to learn because their parents had no qualifications and didnt encourage learning. The kids werent stupid, they just didnt know anyone who had got anywhere through learning so they thought it was a waste of time. However, my small group of friends and I enjoyed learning and in the same environment got all As at GCSE and A-level, with the same teachers as the drop-outs had.

Its just down to the attitude of the child and the support of the family and friends they have around them. The advantage of fee-paying schools is that the parents of the children have a financial interest into their children doing well, so the teachers and parents are more likely to encourage their learning and not let them get away with things.

elspeth sinclair

The teacher is only as good as the material they are using and English textbooks used in Spanish schools are usually crap and full of americanisms. Most of my students are taught by Spaniards who do not speak English nor have done a six months stay there. I find lots of ocasions where they have been unfairly marked and equally when their mistakes have been missed. However all their teachers are university graduates.

savateur

Complete and utter rubbish ! A good education is an investment for life, one that will help them through good times and bad ! A good qaulity education will earn the relevant child a lot more than £200,000 ! Bear in mind, that's £2000,000, less commission, borkers fee's etc.

Bear in mind that the African doctors you allude to had to pay for their education, and usually do their post graduate training in a Western country !

Stating that talent will always shine through isn't always the case, and a poor qaulity education system can, and usually does let down the talented.

jojojojojo

I think the telling phrase that you've used is "WHEN WE HAVE KIDS" Let me tell you, WHEN you have them you will feel totally different! You'll look at state schools, you'll look at the type of kids who will be your childrens new friends and mentors and you will then work out where they're all heading in the future.... You'll then understand when I say this!!!! I dont care about what other people think, or how other people wish to educate and raise their kids. I want the very best for mine! As for a 200K trust fund. At 18 or 21 a kid could spend that in a couple of weeks without a decent education!

Jo xxx

Veleta

I too have seen lots of kid's homework incorrectly marked correct and vice versa. I think it's a huge problem, nationwide.

Several of my students are school teachers who teach English to the little ones. They have varying abilities in English, but a couple of them are only in my Elementary class!!! It never ceases to amaze me that a school (state school in this case) can employ someone to teach English who isn't far from being a beginner herself.

elspeth sinclair

The biggest problem in Spain is that they don't have teacher training colleges as we do in Scotland and hopefully in the rest of the UK where graduates go straight from University. In Spain they sometimes have to wait years to sit their oppositions with thousands of other graduates all chasing a few jobs. It's really very sad as most Spanish teacher's I know are very dedicated.

SaritaBarcelona

I don't think each teacher needs to be totally bilingual in order to work at the school, but rather that they teach their specialist subject in their native language. For example, a British biology teacher teaching in English, and a Spanish maths teacher teaching in Spanish. That for me would be the ideal situation. Teaching English as a foreign language is generally done in English, by a native speaker, but it is the opposite way in most state schools, as it is more an academic subject than practical language learning. (I have taught people Spanish but admit that they are probably better off with a native speaker once past a certain level; even though I know the grammar and the vocab, explaining said grammar is beyond my skills.)

I work as a freelancer on text books for Spanish state schools, and they are encouraging the teaching of science, geography and history using English as the medium in several regions of Spain, including Andalusia, but I'm not sure if it is across the board. I am just trying to imagine myself, even with the level of Spanish and knowledge of the subject that I have, trying to teach native English-speaking children biology in Spanish! I certain don't envy them...

elspeth sinclair

The whole thing is a minefield and in my experience The British schools in Spain are a rip off when they are owned by the Spanish and where in some cases the owners themselves don't speak English but know a man who does. They take in babies from nine months old and only employ British primary and secondary teachers usually on yearly contracts . These teachers are discouraged from learning Spanish and are not allowed to speak it not even in the playground. The children are not allowed to receive bad reports or a lot of corrections in their workbooks. I taught two of those children during their summer holidays as their Spanish parents were suspicious of their written abilities as older cousins who were learning English at state schools had said there were lots of mistakes. The pupils had been to the school for 7 years and their spoken English was wonderful but there written work was full of mistakes which were largely ignored. I was teaching a pair of English teachers from the same school,Spanish and I asked them how this could happen and they told me pupils could not be marked down and that most teachers became so frustrated that they never signed up for a second year. Those schools when they took in British children gave them extra Spanish lessons but they weren't allowed to speak Spanish to the Spanish students . What a crazy system and these schools cost a fortune.

lynnxa

exactly

when I was teaching English in a language school one of my students (9yrs old) was constantly getting very low marks at school - yet was doing well with me

when I got my hands on one of her exams it turned out that she was often marked incorrectly

another of my students was studying to become an English teacher - he could barely string a sentence together, although he was in his final year

he really wanted to be a sports teacher, but his Bachi grade wasn't good enough for that......................

SaritaBarcelona

What is the situation with language teachers in the UK? Are they expected to have a degree in the language itself as well as teaching qualifications? (I would imagine they are...)

JLFS

I can understand how some teachers feel intimidated by having native speaking children in the class.

A lot of times the child says things in a better way but cannot explain to the teacher why.

I think the teachers who are in this postiton, should be aware that even quite young children have a good command of their native language, and the teacher should keep an open mind instead of just going by the text books.

And they must understand that these children feel really quite humiliated to be singled out in front of a class of Spanish children, during the English class.

It happend to me when I was about 12 or 13, my answer was "y una mierda", (not recommended!!!!!!!!!!)