Key issues in teachers’ assessment of primary education bilingual programs in Spain

Abstract

Bilingual education today pervades the microcosm of primary school settings across Europe, and has deserved the attention of policy makers and researchers. This paper aims at reporting on the perceptions of Spanish in-service primary teachers on four key areas of bilingual programs, namely, training priorities, teaching resources, school organization, and overall assessment of the initiative. We present qualitative data drawn from 97 teachers on the eight most frequently mentioned aspects of each area. Regarding training, teachers express the need for higher linguistic competence, greater investment in lifelong learning schemes, and further opportunities to contact with native speakers. As for resources, most teachers show a lack of enthusiasm with published coursebooks parallel to a growing confidence in their own materials. Teachers also claim that organizational improvements involve split groups and greater coordination. In spite of admitted difficulties, they highlight the fact that bilingual programs yield tangible outcomes such as children’s improvement of their competence in English, parents’ greater demand of schools with bilingual programs, and the deployment of more dynamic methodologies.