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ELA Scheme in Spain/in general

  • 01-11-2009 10:58PM
    #1
    allandanyways
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,960 ✭✭✭


    (Mods please move if this is in the wrong forum, I'm posting a duplicate in the Spanish forum already.)

    Hi,

    I'm a Final Year student at NUIM and am considering doing the ELA (English Language Assistant) scheme in Spain next year. I was just curious as to anyone's experiences of the year abroad and how were the classes/your time in Spain/wherever?

    I know it's more commonly done in Erasmus year but owing to other committments I didn't head abroad this year but my year co-ordinator says that anybody can do the scheme and I was just curious to hear how it went for anybody else?

    Thanks for any replies :)


Comments

  • #2
    uiscebeatha
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 44 ✭uiscebeatha


    I did it in Germany last year and it was the best year of my life.

    Like you I had already graduated, in fact I did it one year after graduating. I had six months teaching experience in an Irish secondary school before I did it and being a language assistant was a piece of cake in comparison.

    I did ACELS CELT (tefl) course before going, even though it wasn't necessary, and I would recommend that as it gives you a headstart in teaching English. being an ELA is also good for getting some tefl experience if you think you might want to continue teaching, I'm now working in a private language school teaching adults in Germany.

    For me the classes varied depending on age and ability. I was in a Gymnasium (German secondary school) where the students were aged 10 to 19, so with the younger ones I played games like Taboo, hangman, Simon Says, Preposition Bingo (Bingo with prepostitions instead of numbers) and with the older ones I did literature (Shakespeare) and debating etc. Remember you could be in a primary school though.

    I took 5-8 students from each class to a separate room to work intensively for one lesson in one of their normal English lessons once a week. My contract said I didn't have to do that (team teaching was recommended) as I was 100% responsible if anything happened to a student during the lesson and no other teacher was present but I didn't mind that.

    I worked 12 hours per week (which is nothing, I know) and got a tax-free "scholarship" (even though I wasn't a student of €800 pm which was enough to get by. It'll probably be different in Spain,it varies between countries.

    I had lived in Germany before and as my first choice I put down a city I knew. Not very many people get their first choice but I did. I believe the reason was because I chose a city of 100,000 people (similar to Cork, which is quite small by German standards) whereas most the people who chose Munich, Berlin, and Hamburg ended up in tiny little villages in the middle of no where as so many had chosen these cities it wasn't possible to put them all in the cities.
    So I would recommend choosing a city that's not likely to be flooded with people wanting to go there.

    I had the time of my life, made such good friends with other assistants from France, Italy, USA and Quebec and really improved my German. Make sure you contact the other assistants in your area so you're not totally alone.

    I don't know what else I can say to advise you. Best of luck


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