Language Assistants in the Primary Education Classroom: Teachers' and Assistants' Perspectives in Galicia (Spain)

Abstract

The role of language assistants has gained great relevance due to the increase in numbers of multilingual schools and bilingual sections, programmes which language assistants have been taken part in since their incipit. Language assistants collaborate with classroom teachers to reinforce spoken skills whilst becoming cultural ambassadors. Despite their remarkable presence in schools, research on this figure is still scarce. The main aim of this study focuses on better understanding both language assistants’ and teachers’ perspectives on the formers’ role in Primary Education classrooms in Galicia. For this purpose, two questionnaires have been used, considering those in Buckingham’s (2016) and Ordóñez-Dios and Polo-Recuero’s (2020) studies, with some adaptations to the Galician context. The sample is formed by 13 language assistants and 20 teachers. Results suggest that Primary teachers do not always benefit from this resource as much as possible, although they acknowledge to be familiar with current legislation. Both teachers and language assistants admit a lower level of satisfaction in first years of Primary Education. Context seems to affect assistants’ set of functions, showing more intercultural aspects in foreign language classrooms than in non-linguistic courses.