Job Discussion Forums

[elliot_spencer]

What is the future of Spain? What does the future hold for people living there and EFL teachers? Esp after the protests of May 15th... Are Spanish people really going to have money to pay and invest in English classes?

[mozzar]

I think they have no choice. The reason their economy is so bad is because they've failed to adapt to the modern world, failed to bring in laws that make hiring and firing easier and will need to keep investing in English lessons just to be on par with the rest of Europe/the world.

With a lot of schools becoming 'bilingual' it may make a dent in the English market. But I've found from my students who go to these bilingual schools that they are actually worse than those who don't. I've no idea how this could be.

[spiral78]

I'd be curious who the teachers are in the 'bilingual' schools.

I know that when the transition to an emphasis on English (as opposed to Russian) began in the Czech Rep, laws compelled the schools to first hire the local language teachers. This was regardless of what language they were qualified to teach! There were quite a few 'English teachers' who were simply a page or two ahead of the students in the required textbooks.

[rafaella]

I've noticed a slight but growing reluctance among adults to sign up for courses. In some cases they simply don't have the money. In other cases they have it but are worried about spending it. Having said that, the market for classes for young learners seems to be more resilient as parents really want their children to learn English even if they have to make sacrifices so that they can do so.

As mozzar says, generally speaking, the Spanish still do not have particularly strong English language skills compared to many other Europeans. I sense there is (at least among some people) a certain resistance, or maybe even aversion, to learning English. Even so most Spanish people would admit a knowledge of English is an important skill.

I would say the market has suffered and will continue to suffer for a while yet, but I also believe there will continue to be work available for EFL teachers - just not at pre-crisis levels.

[jonniboy]

[jonniboy]

Quite honestly I think these guys have got it right

http://www.ef.com/epi/country-profiles/spain/

"Despite the ubiquity of English in school, a recent survey by the official Spanish statistics institution (CIS) revealed that 63% of Spanish people claim they cannot speak English and only 23% claim to speak English well. English learning has changed significantly in the Spanish educational system over the past decade and the results of those changes are not yet visible in the adult population. According to a recent survey by The Hay Group, 70% of Spanish senior managers do not speak English, one of the highest levels in Europe. However, only 40% of Spaniards told the CIS that they felt they had been disadvantaged at some point in their careers due to their poor English skills.

The overall attitude towards English in Spain is that it is a requirement for the future according to the media and politicians, but that it is a chore to acquire and maintain according to popular sentiment. In day to day life, Spanish people have few opportunities to put their English to use and little motivation to seek out those opportunities. According to the CIS, 40% of the adult population agrees that mastering English is important but less than 6% is actively studying it. Spaniards are far less likely to travel internationally than other Europeans and one third of the population has never been abroad. They spend less per holiday than members of any other major European economy, indicating that their trips abroad tend not to take them far from home for long periods.

It was not until the late 60�s that the very first foreign films were screened without dubbing. They had no commercial success, and to this day there are few cinemas in Spain that show foreign films in their original language although the number is increasing in large cities. The size of the Spanish-language market has always justified the dubbing of TV and film imported from abroad. Spain is the 5th largest feature-film producing country in the world after India, the US, Japan and France.

In October 2010, a heated debate began when the current Minister of Education suggested that the policy on dubbing films and television shows in Spain be revised to show more media in its original language. He argued that this would force both adults and children to become more comfortable with spoken English. The opposition argues that Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language in the world, and Spain should focus more on its regional languages than on English."

[spiral78]

The Erasmus students from Spain to 'our' Dutch university bear this out - their English is commonly far below the CEF B2 required, but because they are Erasmus students, participating universities are not allowed to require further testing or language training. The students often struggle (and fail) in an English-only environment.

It seems to be very easy for these students to come up with an appropriate IELTS or Cambridge score somehow in Spain, before their arrival.

Is there an under-the-table testing facility ring, bumping the test scores?

[artemisia]

[spiral78]

We had it often with students from all over the south of Europe

[mozzar]

Perhaps they have been trained to pass the exam rather than English language? Or they just pay the money so no one really cares what happens.

[spiral78]

I think the latter is most likely. They don't even seem to have latent language, and certainly couldn't pass any sort of test we might offer.

[DMcK]

[jonniboy]

[Moore]

"Is it even remotely possible these days to get a full schedule (22 clock hours plus) without teaching kids?"

...it is definitely possible, there's really a lot of work here in Madrid right now.

The thing is, academy pay has not kept up with private pay. Private classes here pay between 20 and 25 euros an hour (cash). It is almost impossible to get such rates from academies, and especially as you'd have to be paying "autonomo" payments every month.

Private classes have the added bonus that non-EU people can do them just as well (but pleeeeeeease let's not go into the wrongs and right of that in this thread!)

Seeing as how academies offer cr*ppy "chocolate-teapot" 9 month contracts that aren't really worth the paper they're written on, for lower wages, people prefer to bite the bullet and teach kids.

That said, those are the rates in Madrid: I hear they're similar in Barcelona, but the provinces probably less so.




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[jonniboy]

Thanks Moore, though unfortunately Madrid definitely isn't for me, I'd need somewhere with a beach. I've seen people advertising for �20 an hour on the Barca forums in Loquo but do they actually get many takers these days?