EOI MASPALOMAS
CANARY ISLANDS - SPAIN
Following the suggestions given by the European Commission, Spain is striving to enhance foreign language teaching, especially through a network of Official Language Schools (Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas - EOIs) run by the Local Education Authorities in each of the 17 regions in Spain. EOIs are state language schools. These Language Schools, within the national legislation non-compulsory education stage, are specialized in teaching languages to students from 14 years old onwards. In fact, our country is the only one in Europe that provides this kind of adult public education. The ability to speak foreign languages is a major factor for inclusion and competitiveness and our system of Language Schools may well be considered a hub for dissemination and promotion of multilingualism. Languages are also important to increase levels of employability and mobility -poor language skills are a major obstacle to their placement and free movement. EOIs also issue recognized certificates, for both our internal students as well as external students, following the language proficiency in the six levels of the CEFR.
Our school, EOI Maspalomas (together with AEOI Mogán, which is an extension of the main school to the neighbouring municipality), belongs to a network of 23 state language schools in the Canary Islands (Gobierno de Canarias). Our region, the Canary Islands, is an area of exchanges and flows of people due to migration and tourism. EOI Maspalomas offers courses in five languages: English, French, Italian, German and Spanish for foreign students. Students attend a two-hour teaching session twice a week. We offer a wide range of teaching hours: morning, afternoon and evening lessons. The academic year is 9-month long; it starts in September and finishes the last week of May. The examinations for the official certificates are held once a year in June.
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There are 3 administrative staff people, 14 language teachers and about 900 students in our institution. In our classrooms, there are students of all ages and professions. There are many university and advanced vocational students, professionals (teachers, nurses, doctors, police officers, military personnel, secretaries, shop assistants, industrial and service workers), housewives, unemployed workers, pensioners and early-retire professionals. On the one hand we have to cope with cultural, age, social and educational difficulties; on the other hand, we have a competitive advantage, that is, we can rely on multiculturalism offered by our specific environment and this raises motivation amongst learners. The general international composition of the classes, including people with different cultural and professional backgrounds, represents an important asset of the school, because it allows mutual enrichment among learners (sharing of know-how, language and life experiences, discussing different visions and perspectives).