The role of the Language Assistant in Spanish Bilingual Education: A Literature Review

Abstract

Every year, thousands of language assistants come to schools in Spain with the main objective of improving students’ oral communication and cultural knowledge of the countries they come from. These young people, who act as “ambassadors” for their countries, will collaborate with the school’s foreign language department in order to fulfil their duties. Despite the proven usefulness of language assistants, both the teaching staff and the assistants themselves complain of a lack of clarity about their functions and roles. It is therefore the aim of this study to gather the information obtained from the various studies on this subject with the purpose of clarifying these functions as well as to recognise the real tasks performed by these people. To this end, the most representative studies that analyse their roles, tasks performed, perceptions of both teachers and assistants and limitations have been selected, thus allowing their subsequent analysis and correlation in the form of a literature review. The studies analysed, which have been carried out mainly in the Community of Madrid and the province of Seville, report similar results, which allows us to establish a clear route map for improving the implementation of this programme in both bilingual and non-bilingual schools.