Teaching Eeengleesh in Espain

I thought that since it's nearly September (seriously, HOW did that happen?), it was about time that I finally actually admit to the fact that, well, I'm living in Spain to teach English, not to go gallivanting off to as many foreign countries as possible. As you may or may not know, this past year I somehow got myself into teaching English to (mostly) preschoolers. I had seven classes in the primary school (fourth, fifth, and sixth graders), but the majority of my 25 hours teaching were spent with 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds. Don't ask me how or why that happened. (Not because there isn't a why or a how, but rather because it's better that I leave that topic alone.) So anyway, I spent the greater portion of the last ten months reviewing colors and numbers, playing games, and teaching songs. (That's right, my friends, I was forced to break my strict rule of never, ever singing in public - but it's okay because they're so little they don't care, right? Or perhaps the opposite, I'm scarring them for life with my awful singing voice?)

I'm still not sure how, but I somehow grew to enjoy teaching the little kids. After all, they're too young to be really obnoxious or critical or negative like teenagers and preteens can be. This isn't to say that teaching such young children English is a piece of cake, because it isn't; more than anything it's very difficult to keep their attention for nearly an hour in a language that is almost entirely foreign to them when they're that young. Some classes wound up being really great and easy and fun, while a select few others were just short of a nightmare.

Naturally, the five-year-olds were my favorite this past year. They're the oldest (in preschool), they know the most English, and they also just happened to be a really great group of kids. (I know teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, but let's be real - it happens. I absolutely had some favorite students, and the majority of them were five-year-olds.) Unfortunately, it's unlikely I will have these students next year when they more to first grade in primary school. I'll see them but I most likely won't teach their English classes.

Preschool graduation.

I should probably clarify that the majority of my preschoolers still have an...interesting level of English competence. This is something that varies greatly amongst Spanish schools, and as far as I know, the English program at my school is relatively new. The vast majority of the preschoolers I teach have never heard or spoken any words of English when they enter preschool at three years of age, and since they only get an average of five hours of English a week, the learning process is slow. However, I can generally lead my classes in English and speak entirely in English with my preschoolers and they understand the majority of what I say (especially the five-year-olds), but they aren't able to produce full sentences on their own. My four- and five-year-olds know how to say "My name is...", "I like...", and "I'm fine thank you, and you?" but these are automatic phrases they've learned by memorization. By the time they reach third or fourth grade they will most likely have a pretty decent level of English (as far as Spain goes), so they're on the right track.

But the great - and surprising, to me at least - thing about their level of English is that they do understand a great deal of what I say, even if it's just the gist of it and not word for word. Furthermore, they have an incredible vocabulary, the five-year-olds in particular. They know more animals in English than I think I knew in Spanish previous to this year, they can tell you what the weather is like, they know a ridiculous amount of insects in English, they can tell me what foods and sports they like, and most impressive of all, they know the alphabet in English and can identify a lot of words written out in English. It really is incredible how much information their brains soak up.

Anyway, my classses in primary were a much different experience (i.e. they can usually - keyword "usually" - speak full sentences in English and they're often much bigger pains in the butts). I had a little bit of different things, science taught in English (a serious nightmare), English grammar classes (where I was actually for once the teacher's assistant, what I'm actually supposed to be), and English theater workshops (a mix of fun and nightmare). I'll admit that even though the primary classes could be miserable, mainly because of the students' awful behavior, it was generally nice to have a mix of older kids with the little preschoolers.

I'm going to leave commenting on the Spanish education system, the program that I'm a part of in order to teach here, and the differences between education here and in the US until another time...probably once I've finished this school year because, well, I want to keep my job (if you catch my drift). But I will say, it has been a very interesting experience...

Oh, and the above video is the five-year-olds at their preschool graduation, singing a song in English (not taught to them by me). The quality isn't great, and I didn't realize that I was NOT recording the song until halfway through (oops), hence why it just starts in the middle of a line. But I think it's cute and they did a great job singing it - it's a challenging song for their age/English level!