Training priorities in primary education bilingual programmes in Spain

ABSTRACT

Bilingual education currently faces the challenge of improving teacher training to meet the linguistic and didactic demands of a content and language integrated approach. Our paper analyses what Spanish in-service primary school teachers consider the key training priorities for their involvement in bilingual programmes. Using content data analysis, we have detected the most frequently used terms in the teachers’ answers to an open-ended question. 2,830 words were examined, and the net of relations among the training priorities emerging from their discourse was established. Our results confirm that teachers prioritise the need to be proficient in English over methodological issues, which prevail once language proficiency has been achieved. They highlight investment as being crucial both to implement school bilingual programmes and to provide training opportunities for their professional development. Our study concludes that only concerted personal and administrative efforts will bridge the gap between global educational agendas and classroom performance.

KEYWORDS:

• Bilingual education programmes
• primary education
• training
• teacher education
• CLIL

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

R. Durán-Martínez

Ramiro Durán Martínez, Ph. D., is an associate professor in the English Studies Department at the University of Salamanca. He started his career as a Escuela Oficial de Idiomas (Official School of Languages) teacher and since 1997 he has dedicated his time to training ESOL teachers in the Primary and Secondary education sector. He has collaborated in international teaching placement schemes and participated in postgraduate courses in the areas of English Language Teaching and Bilingual PrograPrograms. He has published several books and papers in these areas.

Fernando Beltrán-Llavador

Fernando Beltrán Llavador, Ph. D., has been involved in teacher training for over 25 years. He has co-authored books, written articles, and presented papers on the interface of language, society, and culture in foreign language and CLIL Teacher Education. He has translated several books from English into Spanish and has coordinated international teaching placement schemes and collaborated in CLIL and intercultural projects.

Fernando Martínez-Abad

Fernando Martínez Abad, Ph. D., is a Graduate in Statistics, Bachelor of Psychopedagogy, and has a Master’s Degree in ICTs in Education. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Organization and Research Methods at the University of Salamanca. He is a member of GRIAL Research Group, specialised in the field of assessment and research methods in Educational and Social Sciences. He has published in the last 5 years more than 20 articles in high-impact international scientific journals in the field of Education Sciences.