How to become a formal education ESL/EFL teacher in Spain.

As you know, there are many paths to choose from to become an English teacher. Years ago, in Spain, if you wanted to have a teaching career in English in formal education, you had to study a B A. in English (English Philology). 

This enabled you to work in the non-formal education sector, mainly in language schools. Working conditions at that time were not the best, to be honest: very long hours with eternal breaks at various times. In my case, I remember working for two different language schools. I taught extracurricular EFL classes in two schools. I had class from 8 to 9 am in the first one (after commuting for an hour and a half from my home) and,then, from 13:30 to 14:30 in the second one after an hour travelling between these schools. Then, off to the subway to travel for an hour (having a sandwich for lunch on the way) to teach from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Let's not talk about salary, but you may well guess it wasn't very high.

Honestly, though, I will never complain about this schedule and the long hours. I had time to prepare all the classes (tasks, handouts, processes, assessment...) and even read literature related to the EFL world. Last but not least, I gained lots of experience which still to this day I find extremely useful.

But what about formal education in Secondary School? By the time I finished my degree, we had to take a course which followed the following format: you registered and received three books (after paying a high fee), read them, attended a Saturday morning session with "experts" (Education PhD candidates), completed the required two-week practical sessions in a high-school on your own (teaching some classes if you were allowed to), wrote a report on your internship and sat a multiple choice exam. Had the books been useful, I would have appreciated this course, but they were not designed for prospective English teachers, but Spanish ones. I still remember reviewing Spanish literature, which I liked but wasn't appropriate for us English teachers. This whole process took between 3 and 6 months. In a nutshell, a waste of time and money. Just worth it for the possibility of being able to teach in the formal education sector.

Nowadays, there's a huge difference. Here in Spain, you finish your B.A. in English and then take a M.A. program in Education. Looks way better, doesn't it? But not all that glitters is gold. 

The idea of having a real appropriate specialized training is fantastic and I am a fervent supporter, but "Spain is different". Why? Well, most professors in these M.A. programs have never taught a class in Secondary School or, if they have, it was a long time ago. In other words, they can't show students the reality of teaching. It's just more theory. Oh, yes! The theory I had studied on my own and had started to implement in my teaching practice! I'm not saying I did it perfectly well. On the contrary, I made many mistakes, but didn't have to pay elevated fees, although nowadays there is a stable system of institutions willing to allow these future teachers to teach while they have to carry out their practical element of these programs.

I've already been the tutor of some students in these M.A. programs (both from public and private universities) and they are surprisingly good at theory, but don't really know how to structure a class. They know many big names (methodologies, writers, researchers...) but have no idea on how to teach a class. They've lost referents in their life and can't articulate a coherent, consistent session. By this I mean many M.A. programs like these aren't really working as they should, as didn't those some years ago, but they enable you to teach in the formal education sector.

Fortunately, the situation is different in Primary Education, as future teachers have to develop their teaching skills by spending a good amount of time in institutions so as to gain real practice experience. Good for them! I've seen many of them in the school I work for and they get that real practice that will be essential in their career. 

As far as I know, the situation for Secondary School is improving with some universities designing a range of M.A. programs that look quite well designed and seem to offer a thorough training for new teachers and experienced ones. One example is Universidad de Alcalá de Henares through Instituto Franklin (www.institutofranklin.net), as they offer a wide variety of programs with an international atmosphere because of professors and students (many of whom come from the USA). In any case, if you are really interested, take a look at the programs that Spanish universities offer, but bear in mind that the requirements in other countries will be more than likely be different. Here you have a link to the different universities in Spain: 

http://www.crue.org/universidades/SitePages/Universidades.aspx 

This is just an abbreviated overview about the situation in Spain when it comes to formal education. What is the situation in your home countries? Is it better, similar or worse? I would love to hear about it!

What about informal education? Wait for the following entry to get to know about it!

David.