1. An exploration of the
Bilingual Education
Program in Cantabria
(Spanish-English)
2. HELLO!
I am Laura Yie
I am a language lover studying Audiovisual
Translation at University College London. Please
feel free to get in touch via LinkedIn!
4. “ The bilingual program in Spain
aims to improve students’
communicative competence
through the teaching of non-
linguistic related materials in
English.
(Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de Cantabria, 2013)
5. What is the bilingual education program?
▸ In 1996 the British Council and Ministry of Education collaborated to
develop the (Spanish-English) bilingual education program in Spain
(Arango, 2010, in Dobson et al., 2010, p.5).
▸ In 2014, 18 public primary schools and 26 public high schools followed
the bilingual education program in Cantabria (Consejería de Educación, Cultura y
Deporte de Cantabria, 2014).
▸ The bilingual education program is an example of Content and
Language Integrated Learning (CLIL).
7. ▸ Students in the program were ready to co-operate and
give constructive feedback to each other and that
teachers encouraged students to participate (Dobson et
al, 2010, P.31).
▸ From my own experience of working in a bilingual school
in Cantabria, I found teachers created encouraging and
positive learning environment for students’. Lessons
were interactive and encouraged participation.
Findings in favour of the bilingual education program:
8. “Data available for the test results of students in the program
suggests that:
▸ The program had a very significant positive impact on students’
performance and linguistic competency in English.
▸ The program found no negative impact on Spanish language or
mathematics results (subjects taught in Spanish).
▸ However, there is no data available to compare how these
students performed in non-linguistic related subjects taught in
English with those who are not following the program!!
(Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 2013b, p.26).
10. “ The majority of the children who
pass the bilingual part pass because
they go to private classes or
extracurricular activities in the
school, and very few families are
able to afford this.
(Anonymous teacher at bilingual primary school)
11. Is the billingual education program accessible?
▸ The results of students in primary education of the bilingual program
(which is applied to all students in the school) whose parents had only
completed compulsory education had significantly lower marks that
those whose parents had completed a higher level of education.
▸ A significant difference in socioeconomic background found between
the students on the program who are selected to continue the bilingual
program. There are very few places for the program in secondary
education, students are selected via tests.
▸ Students who can afford to do so often attend private classes in English
outside of school to increase their level.
12. ISEC* (index measuring socioeconomic and cultural level of
students) of students in Cantabria in 2013.
Primary school level
(bilingual program open
to all)
Secondary level (students of
billingual program selected
via exams)
Difference in ISEC between
students of billingual and
monolingual education
0.2 0.73
Difference in ISEC between
billingual and
monolingual education
within the same school.
n/a 0.86
*Measures in this study varied from -3.30 to 2.41 (primary education) and -3.64 to 2.08
(secondary education).
(Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte, 2013b, p.24, p.28).
13. ▸ In my experience, teachers generally did not have a near-
native level of English. Teachers frequently mispronounced
words in classes (to the extent of changing the meaning of
the word).
▸ Students in the school where I worked had just one
session (between 30 minutes and 1 hour) every fortnight
with a native speaker.
Are schools ready to go billingual?
14. “ The students are exposed to a
language which isn’t real, it’s
forced and far being pronounced
correctly.
(Anonymous teacher at bilingual primary school)
16. For
- Significant improvement
in level of communicatie
English.
- Students happy to
participate in interactive
learning model.
Summary of findings for and against the bilingual program
in Cantabria.
Against
- The billingual program could
increase segregation between
students of different
socioeconomic backgrounds.
- The English heard by students
in classes may be incorrect as
the staff are not truly
billingual.
17. “ The question shouldn’t be “does
the bilingual education program
work?” or “does it usually work?”
but “what can we do to improve
the program and to make it
more accessible to more
children?”
(Cziko, 1992, p.15)
18. Why does learning English
matter anyway?
▸ Improves job and wage prospects
of Spaniards.
▸ 61.7% of young Spaniards say that
moving abroad to find work is of
of equal with them staying in
Spain (Centro Reina Sofía, 2013, p.122) .
▸ University students in Cantabria
need a b2 (advanced mid) level of
English to graduate.
19. English is used daily by half of all employees of multinational companies
(Education First, 2014, p.14)
21. CREDITS
Special thanks to the following people:
▸ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival
▸ Photographs by Death to the Stock Photo (license)
▸ All the teachers interviewed for this study.
22. References
▸Alan Dobson, María Dolores Pérez Murillo, Richard Johnstone. 2010. Programa de Educación
Bilingue en España. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://www.britishcouncil.es/sites/default/files/british-council-programa-educacion-
bilingue-esp-informe-evaluacion.pdf. [Accessed 16 July 2016].
▸Centro Reina Sofía (2013) Crisis y contrato social. Los jóvenes en la sociedad del futuro,
Madrid: Fundación de Ayuda contra la Drogadicción (FAD).
▸Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de Cantabria. 2013. Consejería de Educación,
Cultura y Deporte de Cantabria. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://boc.cantabria.es/boces/verAnuncioAction.do?idAnuBlob=258399. [Accessed 10
March 2016].
▸Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte de Cantabria. 2014. Guía 2014-2015 Oferta
Educativa Cantabria. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://www.educantabria.es/docs/guia%20fin%202014-15_v5.pdf. [Accessed 23 July
2016].
▸Consejería de Educación, Cultura y Deporte. 2013b. Evaluación De Diagnóstico 2012-2013 .
[ONLINE] Available at: https://www.educantabria.es/docs/Avance_informe_curso_2012-
13_v1.pdf. [Accessed 1 March 2016].
▸Cziko G. A. (1992). The evaluation of bilingual education: From necessity and probability
to possibility. Educational Researcher, 21, p.10–15.
▸Education First. 2014. EF English Proficiency Index for Companies. [ONLINE] Available
at: https://www.ef.com/__/~/media/centralefcom/epi/v4/downloads/epi-c/ef-epi-c-
english-191114.pdf. [Accessed 8 November 2016].
