EDUCATION FOR PRE-SERVICE SPANISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS OF YOUNG CHILDREN: EXPERIENCES FROM A SERVICE-LEARNING PROGRAM
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Abstract
Service-learning is an educational approach that combines learning processes with service to the community. By carrying out an activity that supports groups and individuals in the local context, the participants develop their knowledge and professional skills, together with their social and cultural values. With its double objective of providing professional practice to future Spanish language teachers and of offering a Spanish course to children in the beginning grades of primary education, the program Spanish in Alas represents an example of service-learning practice. It was initiated by the Department of Iberian Studies of the Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade, the Association of Spanish Teachers of Serbia, and the primary school “Mihailo Petrovic Alas” in Belgrade. The service-learning program was piloted during the academic year 2018/2019 with the pupils of the first grade of the primary school. Since then, it has progressively grown: it currently includes pupils from the first to the fourth grade, so that many of the children, who joined the program in their first grade, have participated for several consecutive years. Here, we describe the program in detail and offer an analysis of its different components that include workshops, meetings, online platform, class preparation with feedback, teaching curriculum, as well as other less formal means of didactic support. Importantly, the article offers a retrospect of the program since its initiation and a consideration of its gradual development over the years in hope that this exercise in critical reflection will improve its future implementations and hopefully encourage more activities of the kind.
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