We live in the most globalized world in our history. Internet and new technologies have shortened distances, information flows faster and much more than ever, we have instant access to news and events that happen on the other side of the world. In addition, the trend towards convergence and synergies in international trade has made learning foreign languages an essential need. It is often said that knowing languages opens doors, that languages are the future …
Well, it’s not the future any more, but our present. Following the recommendations of the European Union, in the near future European citizens will be expected to have useful and effective knowledge of at least two foreign languages besides their native languages. However, the reality of our country is very different. Mastering one foreign language is still one pending issue for many, and an increasing need in the workplace.
At Pàlcam, we have been concerned about this issue for many years, and we have been working to make our students achieve the required level of knowledge in foreign languages. Our students start learning English at P3, 10 hours a week of activities in English. They go on at primary school with nine hours a week of courses in English, implementing CLIL subjects, such as Science or Arts and Crafts. Once they arrive to secondary school, they will still have nine hours in English, and the students are also offered a second foreign language, French.
Apart from the number of hours in English, we also implement many tasks designed to reinforce the acquisition of the language:
- We have three native conversation assistants every year. The asssitants give us some support in our foreign language classes, allowing to strengthen and expand the oral skills of our pupils.
- We maintain international exchanges with European schools. Last year, we were coordinators of an Erasmus + project on healthy lifestyles and entrepreneurship. In addition, each year we have two or three student exchanges in the EU with our secondary school pupils. In these exchanges, we travel and visit schools around Europe, and later we host students who visit us as an exchange.
- We celebrate a week of activities in English each year. During the English week, we do some research in the most interesting cultural aspects of English-speaking countries.
- We encourage and prepare our students to take the official Cambridge exams at both primary and secondary, and to get the First Certificate at the end of high school.