From the point of view of the teachers, the bilingual project encourages them to broaden their knowledge and practice the foreign language in context.
On the other hand, there are some disadvantages too. The bilingual project ends in 4th ESO, once in Bachillerato, the students that followed the project face the following situations: In each classroom there is a mixture of students with different levels: some of them followed the bilingual project during ESO while others did not. All the subject areas are taught in Spanish. As a result, these students are not encouraged to keep up their effort to learn English. And what is even more frustrating, their English level might easily worsen.
Even if IES José Luis Sampedro organizes some extra activities in English, they are rather rare and very expensive. Another initiative which is more and more often chosen in other bilingual high schools refers to exchanges amongst students from different countries.
This is a much cheaper opportunity to practice a foreign language and to really get to know about another culture and way of living.
The bilingual project is a very enriching initiative, both for students and for the teachers. It helps students to be more open-minded and prepares them for their future as members of a multilingual world. Nevertheless, a bit more of effort and enthusiasm would be welcome in order to reinforce the bilingual education after 4º ESO; to extend the program to different foreign languages and to provide students more opportunities to meet people from different countries all around the world.
BILINGUAL PROJECT:
A GREAT PROGRAM
…THAT SHOULD LAST LONGER
By: Paula del Pozo