The Spanish Education Office offers support for the teaching of Spanish at all levels
The Spanish Education Office in Australia and New Zealand offers support for the teaching of Spanish as a foreign language at all levels in both countries. This policy is part of a major initiative of the Spanish government to promote Spanish language and culture throughout the world.
“The Spanish Education Office in Australia and New Zealand is the department of the Spanish Embassies in Canberra and Wellington representing the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport. Its main functions are the promotion, management and coordination of education programmes in order to enhance cooperative agreements on Spanish languages and cultures in Australia and New Zealand. This is done jointly with other offices of the respective embassies, under the authority and coordination of the Heads of the Diplomatic Missions.
This Office is in charge of the international programmes of the Spanish Ministry of Education in these two countries. Our aim is to provide support and professional advice to the official educational systems by means of human, technical, curricula and didactic resources, in collaboration with Australia’s and New Zealand’s educational and cultural administrations, institutions and agencies. The encouragement of exchanges within the educational context (primary to tertiary included), and in general, any other means which may facilitate the access to education abroad for Spanish citizens and for foreigners in Spain are key objectives in our mission.1 …
The Education Office in Australia and New Zealand is the representative office of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD) in Australia and New Zealand. Its principal objective is to bring closer the Spanish language and culture to the educational community, teachers, hispanists, students, consultants and in general to all those people interested in Spain and the Hispanic world. Manage in these countries the activities of the Spanish Ministry international programs.
In Australia the Spanish MECD counts with one Education Office, to which the Spanish education advisors in Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra-Sydney, one Spanish Language and Culture Program (ALCE) and the Spanish Resource Centres Alejandro Malaspina in Canberra and at RMIT in Melbourne are all dependent.
The Spanish Education Office in Australia is the technical means of the Embassy of Spain in Australia, whose principal functions consist in promoting, managing and coordinating the educational actions designed to the Spanish educational cooperation in Australia, without prejudice to the responsibilities entrusted to other organs of the diplomatic mission.”2
The Spanish Education Office provides the following services:
- Promotes the Spanish language and culture in the educational systems of Australia and New Zealand
- Spanish language support and advisory services for Languages Other Than English (LOTE) departments and schools teaching Spanish in Australia and New Zealand
- Professional development courses for the teachers of Spanish in the countries under its jurisdiction
- Information and advice on educational resources for teachers and students of Spanish
- Assistance to Spanish departments in Australian and New Zealand universities
- Development and support to bilingual programs
- The management of cases of recognition of studies and recognition of qualifications
- Programs management scholarship and practice
- Information on validation of studies for students wishing to study in Spain
- Information on courses of Spanish language and culture in Spain
- Management of Centro para la Innovación y Desarrollo de la Educación a Distancia (CIDEAD) exams, the Instituto Cervantes and other Spanish institutions
Training support
The Education Office runs teacher training and methodology update courses for teachers of Spanish. Some of these activities are organized jointly by the Office and Australian and New Zealand teacher programs and associations.
Language assistants
Specific support for the teaching of oral Spanish is provided through the Spanish language assistants program in some New Zealand schools. This program will be extended to Australia in the near future.
Publications
The Office publishes Voces Hispanas, a journal addressed to Spanish teachers in Australia and New Zealand, with news from the Office, teaching activities designed for the classroom, articles on Hispanic culture, etc. Open to collaboration. RedELE, electronic journal for Spanish teachers worldwide with articles on teaching theory and practice, and essays on methodology.
Teaching resources
The Education Office website offers on-line resources specifically designed for Australian and New Zealand teachers of Spanish. Teaching resources, both written and audiovisual, and promotion materials are available through the Spanish Cultural and Resource Centre “Alejandro Malaspina” in Canberra. The largest of its kind in the South Pacific area, the Resource Centre offers its members over 9,000 items (books, videos, magazines, slides, music CDs, CD-ROMs…) for the teaching and learning of the Spanish language and culture.
Source: Spanish Education Office in Australia and New Zealand
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