The use and integration of native English language assistants in public secondary schools in Spain

Abstract

Within educational settings, the term Language Assistant is one that is often thrown around without a great deal of awareness as to what it really means or what a Language Assistant does. lt is almost as common to find a Language Assistant, which we will refer to henceforth as LA, in a Spanish school as it is to find a library there: the use of LAs continues to grow year on year in Spain. One can trace the English Language Assistant programme back to 1936 (Language Assistant Guide, 2022), meaning that there have been programmes in place for almost 90 years. Perhaps this, alongside the growing number of LAs in the classroom, is the reason that the term is so widely known and recognised in Spanish education. We will only focus on English Language Assistant programmes throughout and any reference to LAs refers to English only.