Spain_Huelva

My courses

As I am not a regular student at PH, I only needed 18 credits. Due to the fact that you get in Huelva 6 credits for one course, I had to take three courses. I took:

Geography of Spain
6 credits – Semester 2

Teacher: Ph. Dr. Alfonso M. Doctor-Cabrera
E-mail: adoctor@dgf.uhu.es.

Syllabus:

Peninsular and insular relief.
Climates of Spain.
Territorial and environmental role of water in Spain.
Biogeography of Spain.
Spanish population.
Urban and rural settlements.
Farming, livestock, forest and fishing sectors.
Industrial areas and activities.
The services sector.

For the “Geography of Spain” course, which was one of the so-called “Erasmus-courses”, we had to write some assignments plus a final presentation at the end. This course was very interesting and you get to know Spain much better.

English IV
6 credits – Semester 2

Teacher: Mercedes Guinea Ulecia Área
E-mail: guinea@uhu.es

Syllabus:

Life in society
A) Vocabulary: work; personality; family; Language terminology
B) Grammar: discourse markers (1): linkers; Have and Have got; pronouns; it and there
Once upon a time
A) Vocabulary: verbs, expressions and prepositional phrases with Time; Idioms expressions and prep. Phrases with Get:
B) Grammar: the past: narrative tenses; used to and would; Distancing: seem/appear; The passive with verbs of saying and reporting
Sounds and voices of the human being
A) Vocabulary: sounds; human voices; describing books; money
B) Grammar: Speculation and deduction: Modal verbs (must, may, might, can’t and should); adjectives and adverbs for speculation; Adding emphasis 1: inversion (Not only...); Unreal uses of pasttenses.

The English IV course, which was a normal Spanish course, so not part of the “Erasmus courses”, was very demanding. We had to do a lot of homework and we had to take many tests like a written test, a listening test, a midterm exam plus at the end the final written exam and a final oral exam. Moreover, even though some might think the level of English taught in university might be not as high in Spain, for that course it was not true. The teacher expected a very high level from all their students and the tests were very challenging.

Schoolplacement
6 credits – Semester 2

Teacher: Fernando Rubio

E-mail: fernando.rubio@dfing.uhu.es

Task: To observe, teach and other proper schools tasks you will be ask to do like helping individual pupils, corrections, etc.

The internship was very interesting. I had to do my teacher practicum in a primary school, which was a little bit outside of Huelva. I had to go there 12 full days from 9 in the morning until 2 pm. The first days I observed classes and helped the teacher with corrections and the other days I gave some classes. I really enjoyed getting an insight in another school system and ways of teaching. However, sometimes teaching was kind of hard as I wasn’t really able to talk Spanish with the pupils and obviously they didn’t understand everything in English. Nevertheless, I found a way to let them know what I wanted and the teacher was always in class to help me or explain to them in Spanish if necessary.

It really strikes me that the level of English of some teachers is very low and I have the feeling that some of the teachers just work with the books and never use other materials. Also their teaching methods are not very various and most of the time they simply work through the units in their books. Moreover, they focus more on learning grammar and writing rather than on speaking. I think in primary school the main focus of learning a new language should be set on speaking and grammar/writing should be considered secondary.
Nevertheless, there were also some lessons and ways of teaching that I liked a lot and from which I can definitively make use of and adopt in my own teaching. Moreover, the staff was very friendly and I felt very comfortable in this school.

When it comes to the grading, there is a huge difference between Austria and Spain.
In Austria we have the grades from 1-5, where 1 is the best and 5 the worst.
In Spain the grades are from 1-10, where 1 is the worst, 5 means you passed and 10 is the best.