our teaching system doesn´t work

[Alc112]

Maybe your students need vocabullary. I suggest you to prepare a paper with the common verbs and common nouns and ask them to study it since they always study down pat.

[Supergirl]

Rocio,
It looks like it is the same situation I have found with some students that have had the required six years of English, but can't hold a conversation. The problem is the teaching style. What I encountered is students that had learned in a lecture style classroom. The teacher stands at the front and lectures in the students' first language, but they are talking about English. Then they silently complete their exercises, check their answers, and discuss if there is a discrepency (in their first language). All the while they are not really using English. They are learining the theory of English. It is kind of like taking a class in art history using books and slides without actually experiencing the art in person. For the students to really learn it has to be a communicative style classroom. In this style, most of the talking is done by the students in activities, games, and role plays, etc. (practice), with the teacher explaining the grammar point and task in a few minutes beforehand. The rest is practice and fun. All the activities should have some element of fun. When the students think about class it should be "wow, I wonder what we will be doing next!" Then they learn and don't even know it.

[spancita]

I'm a spanish aussie and I moved last year in July to Spain. I brought my two children and I was shocked to see that my son, who is in 6 class, knew more than his english teacher. The worst part of this is, sorry if I offend anyone, that a spaniard national teaches the english language. It's fine for the theory but the problem is that their pronunciation is totally wrong and it's being taught to these children.

The whole spanish system is entirely wrong in my opinion. To teach english they should have native english teachers, who have their Dip. Ed. in English as a Second Language.

Cheers.

[mykwyner]

Generally speaking, the language curricula at any school are designed by professors of language. These people have advanced degrees in the literature associated with that language, not the language itself. Therefore, the curricula are designed to teach students the grammar (rules) of a language so that, with the help of a dictionary, they can read and respond to foreign language literature. The fact that over 90% of the speakers of a language know next to nothing about their literature or their grammar will never have any effect on the traditions of academia.

[seanaway]

According to a recent survey (can't remember where I read it, sorry!) the poor oral performance in English of Spanish graduates is costing the Spanish economy somewhere in the region of €1billion.

All the above comments are spot on. Teachers spend 80% or more of their time speaking L1 in Spanish schools. How can a student possibly be expected to learn a foreign language? I had the same experience when I was learning French at school and was so angry when I visited France because after 5 years of lessons I couldn't hold a two minute conversation.

I may be wromg, but I heard the Spanish government has lifted the barriers to native speaker teachers obtaining employment at state schools. Anyone know if this is true? It would certainly help deal with some of the issues, however, if a student doesn't want to learn there isn't much even the best teacher can do.

My own experience of teaching in Spain was that students seem to have been trained in completing the task as quickly as possible rather than trying to learn from it. Entertainment had to be part of every lesson, too.

It was a frustrating year for me. One Intermediate group got through just 4 units of Headway in 9 months! My all time record low.

that said, the students who wanted to learn were a joy to teach. They learned too. I suppose the point is, if you want to learn you'll find a way.

Good luck with your lessons