Teacher Adriana27 – Ômega28
R:
How were:: you hired by the School?
Adriana:
I passed all the/ written exam++ I had to do a training and they called me to work.
R:
Written exam. What was the content of that written exam?
Adriana:
Very easy. It wa::s the one I thought the most difficult was Beta. Ômega was the easiest method because it was structural method, isn’t it? Those questions change the sentence to the past tense?
R:
Just grammar?
Adriana:
Just grammar.29
Teacher Patrícia – Delta
R:
It was only one interview then?
Patrícia:
An interview and an essay.
R:
An interview and an essay.
Patrícia:
But in general in the other Delta, the one in ((neighborhood’s name)), where I had already taught I had an exam++ Well a long one with vocabulary stuff I didn’t remember, I think no one would remember that, a long list of false friends++ you had to say what they were, you know? ((laughter))30
Teacher Gabriela – Beta
R:
Got it. So you were recommended and by arriving there you did an exam?
Gabriela:
I did, an exam DELE+ style:: Higher level, an exam quite:: quite tough.
R:
I see. What are the contents of that exam?
Gabriela:
Content exactly?
R:
In general, it was a grammar exam, it was an exam/
Gabriela:
No, nope. It was DELE style, indeed. Listening comprehension, there was comprensión lectora, there was::+ it was quite well divided, well, grammar:: it was quite DELE style, indeed. It seemed like they/ it sounded to me that they took one of the samples of the DELE Higher level exam from the last years and gave them to me.
R:
I see. And:: but there wasn’t any didactic content, for instance, how to teach?
Gabriela:
Nope.31
Teacher Aline – Gama
R:
But then how were you hired? You had to take an exam, anything? /.../
Aline:
That’s it. There’s an exam.
R:
What’s that exam like?
Aline:
Nowadays the exam, it has a level as it were from DELE. Higher level. It is like, basically a copy. When I did the exam it was a quite basic level one.32
Teacher Carla – Beta
Carla:
Well, I delivered my résumé. They called me to sit for the exam, a written exam which was a grammar one, vocabulary and so on. I passed the exam and then gave the interview. In Spanish. So::/
R:
Who did you give it to?
Carla:
I gave it to the coordinator of Spanish. At that time, one of the coordinators of Spanish.
R:
Uh-hu.
Carla:
And she::: talked a little about my résumé, she held it and said: “Hm, what you/ Hm, tell me a little bit about your experience, the course you’ve taken” and stuff like that.33
Teacher Carla – Beta
Carla:
Then after being approved at the interview, we did a training course++ which was divided into two stages. First we did a little training err:: there in ((neighborhood’s name)) the same place, where they gave us some ideas about the course, what to/ what it was like, the course’s methodology, and so on. We stayed a couple of days there ((neighborhood’s name)). /.../ After we went to ((neighborhood’s name)). In ((neighborhood’s name)) we took the full training course. All, all franchise businesses, specifically, Rio de Janeiro, provided the training course in ((neighborhood’s name)). We stayed there for three days with ((name of the person in charge)), who is the responsible for::+++ err:: to assess all teachers from the country. So he explained the methodology, we did some, we prepared some, some parts of the lesson to make a presentation there. And on the last day of:: training course, it lasted for three days, on the last training day, we:: a day before we used to receive the lesson plan we were supposed to prepare and on the last day we used to teach the lesson. /.../ The assessment-class. The whole lesson, how it would be, with all the steps involved into the class, like++ with/ with all the steps of the class. And afterwards ((name of the person in charge)) applied an assessment. We didn’t know right out about his evaluation, the person who spoke to us was the coordinator of Spanish. /.../ And we stayed or not. Then he approved or didn’t approve +++ Or approved with reservations: “Well, you’re approved, but you’d better, better... You’d better/ you’d better retake another training...” /.../ The training course at the branch not all branch makes it. I found out that later. People from ((neighborhood’s name)) took the course in order to better prepare the teachers so that they weren’t expected to go++ straight to the training in ((neighborhood’s name)).
R:
Now, tell me more about that training course. What was it like? When you got there what did he talk about? About Methodology all the time...?
Carla:
((name of the person in charge of the training course)) explained what the methodology of Beta was like. The communicative methodology, the lesson STEPS, he had a lesson plan. The first thing he did was to teach a lesson. It lasted more or less an hour and a quarter... /.../ ...teaching, with some teachers who played the role of students as volunteers. /.../ And he gave us the lesson. Err:: Beta’s methodology has a few steps: setting, awareness, systematization, practice... And he explained every step. How a vocabulary lesson had to be, how a reading lesson had to be, how a grammar lesson had to be, and so on. 39
Teacher Rafael – Ômega
R:
/.../ What was the training course like?
Rafael:
Okay. Err:: it was the girl, the/the girl, the coordinator showed us the book, gave us a book and we had to follow the classes she taught us. That, that is, step by step. In, in the text you do this, repeat this way, here you make this question, quite:: step by step indeed, quite like a cake recipe. And then you:: did that and I think that within three weeks/ two days already teaching a lesson, the other weekdays we were supposed to present the lessons to her. And then in that lesson presentation I imagine that she:: she observed whether we had understood well the cake recipe she had told us, that way. I, by that time, I just remember that I thought like: I’m not going to be called/selected. Particularly because I’m not much of following a cake recipe, like, I can’t manage to do it, right:: I’m much more like an interactive person, I skip stages, do things, like, the ones I think that work and, in short, things out of my head. 41
Teacher Gabriela – Beta
R:
How could you describe the training course? +++ What was it, exactly?
Gabriela:
There was a teacher, with some experience at the school, she had probably been working there for about seven years, she:: beforehand, she used to teach a lesson, okay:: she said: guys, I’m going to teach, I’m going to choose a unit of the book and let you know what a class would be more or less like. She taught the lesson indeed and:: she taught the lesson indeed and afterwards she used to tell us: The class is like this. Yet, after that, she was scrutinizing the methodology: well, how to do a pré calentamiento, how to do a producción++ and/and the practices she used remembered the practices I am getting in touch with now in that refresh course. She::/she helped:: /.../
R:
How to cope with your work. You received ((any kind of instruction manual))?
Gabriela:
Oh, I received from Beta. They were:: were ideas, like, general ones. Nothing much specific about methodology. You have to do like this or like that. Quite a cake recipe. And during the training course the teacher started talking about those techniques we worked here, for example. It was the technique of pelota, technique of estrella, it was like this. 43
Teacher Andreia – Alfa
Andreia:
I took Span 2, I didn’t get used to the method; no way, I didn’t want to attend it anymore; I took the Span 7 aft::er because of ((husband’s name)), who had already been working there; and then I took the Span 7 because, to work there, mandatorily, at Alfa is something very strict, you HAVE to do the course they have there; Then I took Span 7, Span 2 and the course for teachers. Aft::er, now I undergo the selection process at other branches which would be an:: interview speaking in the Spanish language. Speaking Spanish. 44
Teacher Andreia – Alfa
R:
Hmm, got it. Bu they don’t demand, as you said, a major in Spanish...
Andreia:
They don’t demand an undergraduate degree. And graduated teachers are obliged to attend a two-semester course for teachers; that’s a course where they teach/ er/ they teach the didac::tic structure of the methodology, how to use, stuff like that. 45
Teacher Andreia – Alfa
R:
Got it. So, er +++ Besides/ and can you say it was a training program?
Andreia:
It’s a training program. It has to do with using the equipmen::t and stuff like that, to rewind::, to forward::, to repeat the picture. It’s a training program. 46
Teacher Andreia – Alfa
R:
Some/some kind of instruction: in your work you need to be there at a certain time...
Andreia:
Oh, yeah! Those things we get to know in the course.
R:
Hmm hmm
Andreia:
To arrive ten minutes before starting the class, to turn all the equipment on so that when the student arrives, everything is on; the air-conditioner must be on as well, because that stuff regarding the air is very important to them, they say the place must be clean, neat, stuff like that.
R:
Hmm hmm.
Andreia:
To check whether the classroom was cleaned up. 47
Teacher Andreia – Alfa
R:
What else do you do besides preparing lesson, learning to deal with...
Andreia:
Er, there are two terms of Hispa::nic and Spanish Literature+ because the regular course doesn’t work with literature and::: also two terms of::: grammar, but a harder grammar because in the course we:: er:: don’t say there’s a past perfect, we say accomplished past. So, in that course for teachers they will talk about past perfect, like, the compound past tenses, say the real++ names++ the grammar name. /.../ One is didactics, it lasts two terms: didactics 1 and didactics 2.
R:
I see.
Andreia:
Literature 1, Literature 2, and Language 1 and Language 2. I attended the first term++ Got it?
R:
I see.
Andreia:
As I had been attending college and the method isn’t something difficult to learn++ then I went as++ as if I had finished the course because of it, because the subjects I had in co/college made up for that Language and Literature that I:: had to attend there.
R:
I see. And how, what is the number of training hours of that course?
Andreia:
Two hours+ each credit. Two hours of language, two hours of Literature, and two hours of Didactics, weekly. 48
