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Message board > Science in Spanish schools
Science in Spanish schools
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abba
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Science in Spanish schools
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Hi, there, last day of Easter holidays  . Anyway, now in my area it is becoming very common to start teaching the subject of Science in primary schools in English. I just wanted to know the opinion of those teachers who are familiar with this. Is it positive? Do you think that the student �s level of English is getting better having a different subject in English?. Then, what method are you using? Do you prepare your own material or do you have a book? Maybe, too many questions but I am curious about the positive results an if this would help to increase the level of English of Spanish students. |
1 Apr 2013
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danygera
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Hi!
I�m teaching in an "Academia" where we focus on vocabulary, grammar and real-life situations in which English is used. However, I notice that a lot of my students are studying science at school in the morning (private or public depending on the student). The results are... not as good as they were expected to be in theory. This is what I�ve noticed:- they have enormous amounts of science vocabulary but they don�t know how to use it. They have huge lists to learn for tests but then they don�t use it in a practical way - and they understandably forget the words after a while. Some of my 9 year olds are learning names of plants, tools, waterproof items... but when they come to our afternoon classes, they make mistakes with questions and auxiliary verbs. I frankly think it�s more useful to know how to ask a question in the past/present/future than being able to name plants when you are 9 years old.
- one reason for this is that a lot of Spanish teachers have had this new subject imposed upon them, and they don�t have the level of English to follow. Having teachers pass a B1 or B2 English exam does not make them bilingual teachers. The requirements for teachers in the public system are very rigid and do not welcome international teachers easily (I was trained and worked in the British public system but am still trying to get my degree recognised in Spain! Switzerland on the other hand gladly accepts British degrees). In other words, many teachers are not prepared to deal with teaching science in English and there is no attempt to have foreign teachers help (apart from in the private sector) ------- that said, I�m sure there are many of you who are teaching science just fine! This is just what I�ve seen in my personal experience in Andalusia.
So basically, I think the theory is good: more subjects in English will make us bilingual (like the Dutch). But in reality, the content and the format of the teaching is not always efficient.
One thing that I�ve noticed is that many of my Spanish friends and students see English as a school subject which must be studied, and not so much a tool for communication that people are using in real situations every day. In my opinion, there is way too much dubbing on TV and in the cinema (Granada, for example, does not offer films in original version). So I think that instead of bringing in more "book subjects" like science to be studied in English, there should be a push for more interactive/communicative/cultural/sporty learning. Maybe art, music and sports teachers should be speaking only English in their classrooms? For me, that would be a step towards bilingualism. But it�s a hard job for teachers to magically start speaking English, unless the government starts being more flexible with recognising foreign degrees.
Of course, some of my students have really flourished after starting to extend their knowledge of English across subjects. Perhaps it can�t be all that bad! Good luck! |
1 Apr 2013
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abba
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Thanks a million for your answer. The fact is that I work in a Secondary school in Catalu�a and the "Science" fashion started around the last two years and I was wondering if students who were exposed to two-three hours a week they would get into secondary school with a higher level. I have always thought that the key is try to make our students see English as a tool to communicate, not just as a subject as maths or biology. I also think that TV is the key, I mean, if films weren �t dubbed, but just subtitled, people would take English differently, however, I guess that the dubbing industry is quite strong in Spain, then..... Anyway, thanks a million again for your answer and a have a very nice week. |
1 Apr 2013
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01marissa
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I �m teaching in a Public Primary school in Catalonia and we use Science to improve English. I began with it, five years ago with my fith graders when we noticed a poor level in spoken English. We always used to teach the same and too much grammar and pupils weren �t interested in and sometimes bored. At this moment we tought we could do two things at a time: Teach English and Science At the beginning it was very difficult. I read a lot about methodology and I was in different CLIL courses. At the beginning my pupils had 3h/week English and one hour Science. Now they have three hours/week Science/English. I give them the tools to give oppinion, to ask questions to predict and of course a little vocabulary, not huge lists, we use visuals, they make presentations, and they are able to communicate in English! If they ask a question in a worng way or with mistakes I just repeat it in the correct way I use to tell them we must do all our best to be understood,. For me, this is the real purpose of learning a new lenguage, make it useful,not to learn long lists of verbs, vocabulary or writing properly verbs or prepositions. This is just to pass the exam. They are going to forget if they don �t find it useful My pupils are happier now and they �ve improved their levels. Around 90% of them were very succesfull in last Basic Competence tests. Most of them with high levels in English.
So, Belen have a good rentr�e tomorow!
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1 Apr 2013
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cindyfreksen
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As an English and Science teacher this topic interests me greatly! I am English, but live and work (and trained to be a teacher) in Denmark.
There is a growing tendency towards teaching other subjects in English over here. Studies in Canada have shown good results for schools using this type of immersion technique - you can read more about it in a book called How languages are learned by Lightbaum and Sparder (I think that is how they spell their names).
I do, however, have reservations about using Science as this subject is full of subject specific words. I always start by telling my pupils that they are now going to learn a new language! I also use a lot of language acquisition strategies during the science lessons, which are in Danish.
I think that one of the questions that should be asked is can these pupils learn enough science as their peers and communicate their knowledge in both languages just as easily if one only teaches a subject in the target language? If the answer is yes then all is well and good, and I would say that most of the pupils will cope, but I have to worry about the weaker pupils or the ones with a mild learning disability such as dyslexia. We have an inclusion policy in this country which means that we have pupils of all levels in the same class, and I think that it would be hard to reach all of them adequately. The schools where science is taught in English are usually schools that offer the pupils it as a choice.
I am very interested in hearing other success stories like the one above ;-)
Cindy
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1 Apr 2013
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