Abstract
Becoming proficient in at least one foreign language is a target for educational authorities throughout Europe. The question is how we can improve our students’ command of English without increasing the workload on teachers and without much funding. In El Prat de Llobregat, a city located in the vicinity of Barcelona, we have addressed that issue by creating a group of teachers, educational advisors and city council administrators, who have been acting in a coordinated way to enhance English language exposure beyond the classroom. Our interest in promoting English stems from our location: our municipality is situated next to an international airport where finding a job is bound to be dependent on English fluency. We aim to show that, through a network of members at school and administrative levels, an array of meaningful and empowering initiatives can be implemented in a city where resources are scarce and cultural backgrounds diverse.
Highlights
IntroductionIt is common knowledge among educators and school administrators that becoming proficient in at least one foreign language (other than Spanish and Catalan, in our case) is crucial
It is common knowledge among educators and school administrators that becoming proficient in at least one foreign language is crucial
Our municipality believes that every student deserves to be able to become multilingual and even more so in El Prat de Llobregat, whose main employer is Barcelona International Airport
Summary
It is common knowledge among educators and school administrators that becoming proficient in at least one foreign language (other than Spanish and Catalan, in our case) is crucial. We have turned to out-of-class learning (OCLL) as a way to promote language competence in our student body Research in this area has been vague but, as Bialystok (1981:24-35) early on concluded, out-of-class exposure to the target language in communicative situations is critical to the development of all language skills. She asserted that learners get the most benefit from formal language instruction when it is coupled with opportunities for natural exposure to the language. Our answer states that parents, teachers, schools, municipalities cannot meet those needs unless they work in a coordinated way
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