Nearly two hundred conversation assistants join the Canary classrooms - La Provincia
Nearly two hundred conversation assistants are incorporated into the Canarian classrooms these days to reinforce the teaching of languages and the oral practice of the foreign language among the students. This course will be 188 teachers who are incorporated into the Program of Auxiliary of Conversation of the Autonomous Community, a course in which, for the first time, the Canary Islands will have auxiliary Fullbright Foundation.
Besides 127 auxiliaries arranged by the Government of the Canary Islands, the thirty from the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and the six included from agreements with town councils, the Canary Islands will have this course with 25 additional conversation aids, after the signing of the bilateral agreement between the Ministry of Education and Autonomous Executive Universities with the Fullbright commission.
The general director of Educational Planning, Innovation and Promotion of the Ministry of Education, Jonathan Martin, participated last week in the acts of welcome to the assistants, in which were also present the consular agent of the USA, Ana María Quintana, and the head of the program of Auxiliares de Conversación Fullbright, Katherine Matles, representing the American educational program that collaborates for the first time in the Canary Islands.
Jonathan Martín emphasized in his speech the importance of "continuing to bet on the promotion of foreign languages and the internationalization of Canarian education", an objective that, he indicated, "the Government of the Canary Islands pursues through powerful programs, such as the Plan to Promote Foreign Languages, with which the archipelago moves towards full bilingualism in the public school ".
"This course is already 23 centers that implement the bilingual modality of teaching within the PILE, compared to the fourteen that had been added to last year," said the general director, who stressed that this expansion of bilingual education, developed progressively and currently reaches the courses of 1st of Infant and 1st of Primary in the 23 centers, other initiatives are added, such as the bilingual baccalaureate in French and Spanish (Bachibac) or the improvement of teacher training to continue expanding bilingualism
The program of Conversation Aids in the Canary Islands has begun this October with the addition of English, French, German and Italian Conversation Auxiliaries to compulsory public education centers.
The beneficiary centers of the measure are experimental centers of PILE, centers with Bachibac or centers selected in the call of this course, chosen by a commission of assessment based on criteria such as the number of years of implementation of different modalities of the Integrated Content Learning method and Foreign Languages, the number of students enrolled in the language in which the resource is requested, participation in European programs or educational projects abroad, or having not had the professional figure of the conversation assistant for the same language in the three previous courses.
The program has a double objective. On the one hand, it aims to make it easier for conversation assistants to improve their knowledge of the Spanish language and culture and to approach the world of education and the Canary Islands educational system. On the other hand, they should collaborate in the improvement of the oral practice of the foreign language of the students, exercising as a reference of linguistic correction and transmission of their own culture.
