The Auxiliar de Conversación position is a part time assistant English teaching position through the government of Spain. You are responsible for providing a native English voice inside of English classrooms accompanied at all times by a head teacher. As an assistant, you help instruct lessons and provide assistance to the head teacher. You do not have disciplinary or grading responsibilities. I often refer to it as “all the fun parts about teaching”. It is an incredibly rewarding program, and the students always love having auxiliary teachers.
When applying, you can mark preferences for regions of Spain, but you do not control where exactly you are placed in Spain. Some get placed in large cities like Madrid and Barcelona. Others get placed in small towns in rural regions, and some teachers can be placed in tropical locations like the Canary Islands.
Depending on your region of placement, you will be given a different contract with different pay. The weekly teaching hours range from 14 to 16 teaching hours with a monthly stipend of €800 to €1,000 depending on teaching hours and location.
The stipend is tax free*, and it is sufficient to cover cost of living in Spain, although many auxiliary teachers also do private lessons under the table. The stipend will not be enough to cover moving costs, travel costs, or any extras. Please bring enough savings to cover your first 3 months at least. Depending on your region, there may be delays in payment.
*Tax free for Spain. Your home country may require you to file and declare taxes on any foreign earned income.
You are allowed to renew up to 5 years within the program, but you have to be careful and be informed because there are shorter limits for different regional educational offices. As far as placements go, priority is given to first year renewals in the same region. Then to new applicants and first year renewals who want to change to a different region in Spain, and then 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year renewals.
This website only focuses on the American and Canadian parts of the NALCAP program, but there are multiple programs.
I have experience with NALCAP and CIEE (must be a U.S. citizen).
Advantages of NALCAP: It’s free! You do not pay any money for this program. I highly recommend this for people who are confident and proactive or have previous experience living abroad.
It’s a lot of paperwork to get a visa and live abroad.
Advantages of CIEE: You receive assistance from the program throughout the year to help with bureaucratic processes such as getting your visa. You get a guaranteed position in Madrid. For the NALCAP program, you indicate a preference, but you do not control your placement.
CIEE Discount
(Receive a $200 discount on any CIEE Teach Abroad program)
Auxiliary programs are also available for people in the following countries: Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand, The Philippines, Singapore, and The U.K.
Regardless of the program you are in and where you are applying from, many parts of the bureaucratic process will be identical.
Requirements
- Be a U.S. or Canadian citizen and have a valid passport. If your passport is expired or if it doesn’t have 2 blank pages, you need to get it renewed. The passport must be valid for entirety of the program. The program (and visa) is typically from October – end of May or June.
- Have earned a bachelor’s degree or be currently enrolled as a 2nd year or higher college student in a bachelor’s program. Applicants may also have an associate degree or be a community college student in their last semester.
- Have a native-like level of English.
- Be in good physical and mental health.
- Have a clean background check.
- Be aged 18 – 60. (Valencia has a maximum age limit of 35. You can check in the specific conditions link above)
Recommendations
- Teaching experience.
- Have experience living or studying abroad.
- Intermediate Spanish level or higher.
- TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification.
- Have experience working with children.
These are things that will help you in the program, but are not required. They also won’t affect your application.
TEFL certification trains you to teach English in a foreign language environment.
It helped me get extra private lessons and an academy job later on.
There are many courses offered online. I took a course through the International TEFL Academy:
TEFL Course Discount
(Get a free $45 digital copy of their textbook)
Language Resources
Duolingo – Duolingo is a great resource for getting started. It is able to introduce basic vocabulary and sentence structure. The program is available on mobile or desktop, and it uses images and context to teach. They also have a podcast to practice listening skills in Spanish which I highly recommend. (here) It’s great for beginners because they tell stories in Spanish and in English so you don’t get lost.
Cons: It is not a great program for mastering a language. They don’t have specific in-depth grammar lessons and conjugation lessons. The program is also incredibly repetitive. You tend to master the program’s repetitiveness and not the language itself.
Spanishdict – Spanish Dictionary is my go to tool to practice Spanish. They have interactive video lessons on verb conjugations, grammar, and they have a massive collection of vocabulary you can drill.
The video lessons are often humorous and feel very natural. You are put into different situations with Telenovela (soap-opera) level acting. Each grammar rule and conjugation is well explained before starting the lesson, and each lesson does a great job of practicing these rules.
Make sure you meet the basic requirements for the program before continuing with the process. I also highly recommend getting a TEFL certification if you want to avoid feeling overwhelmed when you start teaching in Spain, especially if you don’t have previous teaching experience.
Finally, even though you will greatly improve your Spanish while living in Spain, it is a great idea to practice and become conversationally fluent in Spanish before arriving. Necessary tasks such as renting an apartment, getting through immigration services, and communicating with your school will require you to understand Spanish.
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