Day 2: Colegio

This morning, Graciela took me to the school and introduced me to the director and to an English teacher that I will be working with this week. Here in Paraguay, they teach three languages: Castellano (Spanish), Guarani (the native language of the area), and English.

For the linguists that are following this, they are attempting to preserve the native population's language and seem to be somewhat successful so far. I'm told that generally people in the larger cities speak Spanish as their native language, but people in the country use Guarani in their daily life. Therefore, the curriculum requires both languages be taught with (I think) about the same emphasis. My understanding is that the language of instruction for other classes will vary depending on the native language of the students.

Also, it seems that the government has recently focused on creating curriculum specifically for "educacion media," our middle school. The English materials that they have give the teachers a lot to work from. They encourage the teaching of all main language areas: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Their problem, however, is that the teachers don't know or don't feel comfortable implementing them in the way they were intended. As is the case in the U.S. sometimes, the teachers focus considerably on reading and writing, but tend to overlook speaking and listening. I will be working with them to improve these areas of teaching, and also on incorporating more alternative assessments into their teaching.

Please feel free to post questions that you may have. I want to be able to help you understand what it's like here!