Tia's TEFL Internship in Seville

While searching for internships online, I discovered Twin’s Erasmus+ website page and immediately thought it would be an amazing opportunity to improve my teaching skills, advance my level in Spanish and have a new cultural experience.

Before the internship, I completed a five-day teaching course at Twin’s training centre in Greenwich to prepare us for our placements. We met the other interns during this week and had the chance to get to know the people we’d be spending the next three months with. During the course, we learnt about the different elements of English grammar (which was super useful to learn about) and also enjoyed discussing activity ideas that we could do with our students. Whilst abroad, I spent 20 hours per week working at an English language school. I spent the first two weeks observing different classes getting used to the structure of the school.

Following this, I was assigned a mentor and given my own timetable of classes, where I would be a “T2” or teaching assistant. One of the things I really liked about my placement was that I was given many responsibilities, which allowed me to develop my own teaching style. The teaching staff offered their support and advice but allowed us to plan and lead our own regular small classes. This helped me to develop my confidence in leading classes but also was a lot of fun and I got to know my students really well.

 In addition to my placement, I also had one Spanish lesson per week, as part of the programme. This really helped me to improve my Spanish vocabulary, which I put to use practising with local people in shops, restaurants and even having conversations with my Uber drivers. Seville has many “intercambios”, which are social nights where people can come to meet each other and to practise speaking various languages.

My advice to anyone doing an internship in Spain would be to take advantage of every chance to practice their Spanish and to not be afraid to make mistakes.                                                                                                                                                                                                  

The Twin Erasmus+ programme has benefitted me in terms of giving me invaluable teaching practice, increasing my confidence in the classroom and a teaching qualification that will allow me to teach English whilst travelling all over the world. As someone who has always enjoyed teaching at various levels, I am excited by the opportunities that having this experience will bring.

I would definitely recommend the programme to others, and I would urge them to make use of the internship, to practice speaking Spanish and to explore Spain. Seville is really well located in the south of Spain and there are plenty of beautiful nearby cities and beaches to travel to, including Málaga and Cádiz.

Tia Foster - Jan 2020