As a new academic year is about to get underway for all those 'auxiliares de conversación' hired in bilingual project schools across Spain, old hand Audrey Ardanaz gives you the rundown on what to expect and her tips for how to survive.
Each year thousands of English-speakers enrol in a programme to work in public schools across Spain as language assistants known in Spanish as auxiliaries de conversación.
Language teachers in Madrid have faced an unprecedented attack on their working rights in recent years, and the UK’s looming departure from the EU could potentially make matters a lot worse.
For forty years, Bob Yareham (who was born in Hackney North in 1954) has taught English as a foreign language, mainly in Valencia, a challenge that involves explaining, for what seems like the millionth time, that “yes, ‘bare’ is pronounced like ‘bear’ and ‘queue’ is no different from ‘q’.
Kate Boyle spent two and a half years in Madrid teaching business and conversational English to adults. Now back in London, she reflects on what she misses most about her time there.
After a report placed Spain 23rd out of 70 countries in the new world English learning ranking, The Local asked experts to suggest ways the nation could improve.
Nearly 100 percent of Spanish primary school students are studying English, ranking Spain among the top European Union countries for multilingual learning.
In the latest instalment of My Spanish Career, The Local talks to Amy Elliott, an American born and raised in Pennington, New Jersey who has managed to combine a passion for theatre with Spain’s ever growing thirst for English learning.
As one of the only industries in Spain that has not only weathered the crisis, but positively flourished during it, it is boom time for English in Spain. So why are Spaniards finally embracing the language that for so long was held at arm's length?
Spain's results in future PISA tests will be much better if more is done to help students from immigrant backgrounds, experts have said in the wake of the country's poor showing in a recent PISA problem-solving exam.
Spain's students are still struggling with reading, science and maths despite all the money the country has spent on trying to improve its educational standards, the latest Pisa study results show.
Spain should motivate its best teachers with higher pay and greater autonomy, says the director of the OECD's International Student Assessment Programme (PISA).
If your hopes of looking for work in Spain have been dented by news of sky-high unemployment rates, ever-decreasing salaries and long working hours, think again.
