An exploration of the Bilingual Education Program in Cantabria (Spanish-English)

HELLO!

I am Laura YieI am a language lover studying Audiovisual Translation at University College London. Please feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn!

1.Background Information

“ The bilingual program in Spain aims to improve students’ communicative competence through the teaching of non-linguistic related materials in English.(Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de Cantabria, 2013)

What is the bilingual education program?

▸ In 1996 the British Council and Ministry of Education collaborated to develop the (Spanish-English) bilingual education program in Spain (Arango, 2010, in Dobson et al., 2010, p.5).

▸ In 2014, 18 public primary schools and 26 public high schools followed the bilingual education program in Cantabria (Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de Cantabria, 2014).

▸ The bilingual education program is an example of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).

2.The bilingual program a success?

▸ Students in the program were ready to co-operate and give constructive feedback to each other and that teachers encouraged students to participate (Dobson et al, 2010, P.31).

▸ From my own experience of working in a bilingual school in Cantabria, I found teachers created encouraging and positive learning environment for students’. Lessons were interactive and encouraged participation.

Findings in favour of the bilingual education program:

“Data available for the test results of students in the program suggests that:

▸ The program had a very significant positive impact on students’ performance and linguistic competency in English.

▸ The program found no negative impact on Spanish language or mathematics results (subjects taught in Spanish).

▸ However, there is no data available to compare how these students performed in non-linguistic related subjects taught in English with those who are not following the program!!

(Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 2013b, p.26).

3.Doubts about the bilingual program.

“ The majority of the children who pass the bilingual part pass because they go to private classes or extracurricular activities in the school, and very few families are able to afford this.(Anonymous teacher at bilingual primary school)

Is the billingual education program accessible?

▸ The results of students in primary education of the bilingual program (which is applied to all students in the school) whose parents had only completed compulsory education had significantly lower marks that those whose parents had completed a higher level of education.

▸ A significant difference in socioeconomic background found between the students on the program who are selected to continue the bilingual program. There are very few places for the program in secondary education, students are selected via tests.

▸ Students who can afford to do so often attend private classes in English outside of school to increase their level.

ISEC* (index measuring socioeconomic and cultural level of students) of students in Cantabria in 2013.

Primary school level (bilingual program open

to all)

Secondary level (students of billingual program selected via exams)

Difference in ISEC between students of billingual and monolingual education

0.2 0.73

Difference in ISEC between billingual and monolingual education within the same school.

n/a 0.86

*Measures in this study varied from -3.30 to 2.41 (primary education) and -3.64 to 2.08 (secondary education).

(Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 2013b, p.24, p.28).

▸ In my experience, teachers generally did not have a near-native level of English. Teachers frequently mispronounced words in classes (to the extent of changing the meaning of the word).

▸ Students in the school where I worked had just one session (between 30 minutes and 1 hour) every fortnight with a native speaker.

Are schools ready to go billingual?

“ The students are exposed to a language which isn’t real, it’s forced and far being pronounced correctly. (Anonymous teacher at bilingual primary school)

4.Conclusions

For

- Significant improvement in level of communicatie English.- Students happy to participate in interactive learning model.

Summary of findings for and against the bilingual program in Cantabria.

Against

- The billingual program could increase segregation between students of different socioeconomic backgrounds.

- The English heard by students in classes may be incorrect as the staff are not truly billingual.

“ The question shouldn’t be “does the bilingual education program work?” or “does it usually work?” but “what can we do to improve the program and to make it more accessible to more children?” (Cziko, 1992, p.15)

Why does learning English matter anyway?

▸ Improves job and wage prospects of Spaniards.

▸ 61.7% of young Spaniards say that moving abroad to find work is of of equal with them staying in Spain (Centro Reina Sofía, 2013, p.122) .

▸ University students in Cantabria need a b2 (advanced mid) level of English to graduate.

English is used daily by half of all employees of multinational companies (Education First, 2014, p.14)

THANKS!

Any questions?Feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn!

CREDITS

Special thanks to the following people:▸ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival▸ Photographs by Death to the Stock Photo (license)▸ All the teachers interviewed for this study.

References

▸ Alan Dobson, María Dolores Pérez Murillo, Richard Johnstone. 2010. Programa de Educación Bilingue en España. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.britishcouncil.es/sites/default/files/british-council-programa-educacion-bilingue-esp-informe-evaluacion.pdf. [Accessed 16 July 2016].

▸ Centro Reina Sofía (2013) Crisis y contrato social. Los jóvenes en la sociedad del futuro, Madrid: Fundación de Ayuda contra la Drogadicción (FAD).

▸ Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de Cantabria. 2013. Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de Cantabria. [ONLINE] Available at: https://boc.cantabria.es/boces/verAnuncioAction.do?idAnuBlob=258399. [Accessed 10 March 2016].

▸ Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de Cantabria. 2014. Guía 2014-2015 Oferta Educativa Cantabria. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.educantabria.es/docs/guia%20fin%202014-15_v5.pdf. [Accessed 23 July 2016].

▸ Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. 2013b. Evaluación De Diagnóstico 2012-2013 . [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.educantabria.es/docs/Avance_informe_curso_2012-13_v1.pdf. [Accessed 1 March 2016].

▸ Cziko G. A. (1992). The evaluation of bilingual education: From necessity and probability to possibility. Educational Researcher, 21, p.10–15.

▸ Education First. 2014. EF English Proficiency Index for Companies. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.ef.com/__/~/media/centralefcom/epi/v4/downloads/epi-c/ef-epi-c-english-191114.pdf. [Accessed 8 November 2016].