[eng] Foreign languages still seem to be one of the biggest problems of nowadays’
Spanish education. Not only do we occupy a 6th position regarding the people
that do not speak a second language in the EU, but also 56% of Spanish people
only speak their mother tongue. Some attempts to improve this situation have
been taken, such as the insertion of a native speaker of a foreign language in
the classroom. Having said this, the main objective of this work is to describe
and analyse the official documents which state the functions of the foreign
language assistant, as well as studying real cases of FLAs and suggesting a
proposal for the improvement of the role of this classroom resource. LTAs or
FLs are in charge of carrying out linguistic and intercultural activities with a
student-centered objective: making the most of their presence. Besides, they
create real situations in the classroom with a subsequent obliged effort in
understanding and expressing. In other words, the role of the LTA, should be to
develop pupils’ spontaneous speaking skills; to ‘go beyond’ the basic
requirements of the examination.
To do this work, I have taken as a reference the official regulations about
foreign language assistants and I have developed in the matter through the
experience of real foreign language assistants. A questionnaire has been
designed and sent to several language assistants that have worked (or still are)
in Spain. Thanks to these real cases, a proper study and investigation of the
program has been carried out. As a conclusion, some questions and doubts
seem to stand out: Are we making the most of the presence of the FLA?