Our teaching approach is based on a framework for learning languages as defined by the European Reference Framework. In order to make best use of all the useful aspects of the different Spanish teaching methods currently en vogue, Academia Uruguay’s interactive and selective approach is composed of the most significant elements of various approaches on language teaching. It combines different theoretical perspectives focused on the form, significance and function of the language.
We use a modelized methodology which ensures the teachers’ freedom to select the adequate didactic tools for his/her students in the teaching-learning process. A teacher is free to diversify his/her tools and actively plan the classroom hours with methodologies adapted to each student’s needs and objectives in an immersion context. Our experience shows that this approach is significantly enhancing our students’ progress in acquiring content and developing language skills.
This way we can ensure significant, incremental and integral language learning experiences allowing students to communicate in real-life situations in personal, public, professional and academic contexts. Indeed, learning a language is not only about learning grammar and vocabulary, but requires students to be able to put into practise their knowledge in different real-life situations. This also motivates our choice to integrate specific cultural contents (particularly the Uruguayan and Latin-American one) into the learning process. Communication requires knowing more than simply the structure of a language: it requires implicit knowledge of the cultural context in which interactions take place.
