Among the objectives of the development of the Bilingual Sections is the improvement of the teaching and learning process of English as a first foreign language, as well as promoting innovative methodological changes in the areas involved. In addition, the Ministry aims to increase coordination between the linguistic and non-linguistic areas partially taught in English and promote the development of communicative competence through a curriculum that uses the foreign language as a means of learning content from other non-linguistic curricular areas.
Likewise, collaborative work between teachers of educational teams is encouraged and, where appropriate, between the different departments of the center, in addition to allowing the design and development of teaching material to adapt the curriculum of non-linguistic areas.
The number of students studying within the Bilingual Sections Project already amounts to 4,300 throughout the Canary Islands, of which 2,625 belong to Primary education and 1,667 to Secondary. A total of 204 teachers make up the teaching staff who teach classes in these centers.
By islands, the program currently has 13 centers in Tenerife where subjects are taught in English, La Palma has 7, and El Hierro has two. On the island of Gran Canaria there are 31 centers, plus another 3 in Fuerteventura and the 4 in Lanzarote.
Background
The European Commission in 2003 approved an action plan to promote language learning and linguistic diversity. It also proposed the adoption, at European level, of a series of measures in the period 2004-2006 aimed at supporting local, regional and national authorities in achieving this objective.
Following these European guidelines, the Ministry of Education, Universities, Culture and Sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, through the General Directorate of Planning and Educational Innovation, proposed teaching other areas in English as a formula to improve the learning of this language, offering students the possibility of achieving, in the course of their schooling, a level of communicative competence that would allow them to acquire knowledge of other subjects, as well as to interact with citizens of other European countries, unifying the achievement of communicative competences as established in the Common European Framework of Reference.
The experimental project of Active Learning of Foreign Languages began in the 2004-2005 academic year in nine public centers of Infant and Primary Education of the Canary Islands, which has continued in successive courses, expanding the number of centers considerably.
