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What do you need English for? Facts and prospects

Oct 21st

Facts and prospects

Some weeks ago I asked my 4th year students of Secondary Education (aged 15-16 years) to think and discuss about the reasons why they find English is (or will be) useful in their own lives. Although they are still not very concerned with job issues, they know that a good knowledge of the English language will be a prerequisite to add to their CV.

Everybody in the class agreed to consider English as an essential means for their professional development in the future. But what wondered me most was the fact that some of these students do really acknowledge that English is the most useful language for cross-boundary communication -when travelling, in order to make new friends, …- or even to enjoy watching films in their original version or reading fiction.

Perhaps, this assessment is not new for you, but a Spanish teacher of English is quite used to hearing things like “what do we need English for?” or “I won’t need English anymore when I leave school”. And, what is worse, some teacher mates often blame the teaching of English as being an obstacle to the correct learning of Spanish vocabulary and spelling rules.

So, I’m quite pleasantly surprised to find that things are changing… at last. As a proof of it, I took some pictures of the work done in the class.