Teaching English in Rural Schools in Guatemala

Project at a Glance Location: Quetzaltenango/Xela Start Point: Guatemala City End Point: Guatemala City Duration: 2-12 Weeks Hours: 20-30 Hours per week Food: Local meals 3 times a day Room: Local host family Date: First and Third Monday of each month

Project Summary

Teaching English in Guatemala is increasingly vital to the country’s youth! The number of English-speaking tourists visiting Guatemala increases every year. As in most countries in Central America formally inhabited by the advanced civilization of the ancient Mayans, Guatemala’s tourism industry sees annual increases in visits to its numerous ruins. Additionally, the global economy is becoming more and more dominated by English. In order to compete globally and even locally for lucrative jobs, Guatemalan youth must speak English. Furthermore, bilingual employees (especially those speaking BOTH Spanish AND English) are in rising demand. With Spanish spoken in many regions throughout the United States, it is plain to see how valuable dually fluency in Spanish and English can be.

However, when funds and resources are low, Guatemalan rural school English programs are not strong. IFRE places volunteer in various schools throughout Guatemala to assist local teachers attempting to effectively teach English.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

No specific qualifications are required to join the teaching English project in Guatemala. However, interested individuals should have a passion and desire to teach younger children (and occasionally teenagers) and be comfortable fulfilling the role of English-instructors and/or teachers' aides. While Spanish is preferred it is not required. All volunteers are encouraged to be flexible, patient and adaptive.

Volunteer Responsibilities

Volunteers assist school-based local educators and language institutes with pre-established English curriculums involving younger students throughout Guatemala. Young students dramatically benefit from the contributions of proficient English-speaking volunteers willing to dedicate their time and efforts. Volunteers can expect to assist in developing conversational and grammatical English skills. Volunteer may also lend their personal English expertise with design of language activities for younger learners. Administrative duties of educational institutes may also require volunteer support or recommendations. Additional education of younger learners pertaining to issues of personal hygiene and sanitation may also be necessary.

Room/Food/Supervision

In Guatemala, all volunteers stay with well-screened host families. Our host families are socially respected and are well versed in the art of hosting international volunteers. Host families offer a safe home, private rooms (occasionally rooms will be shared with other same-gender volunteers) and shared bathroom facilities with running water and a “western” style toilet. Volunteers have the ability to do laundry at the house or the host family may offer to do it for you for a nominal extra fee. You receive three prepared meals per day. If you will be out of the house during lunch hour, you can request a lunch "to go" that you can take with you or eat out on your own. Host families provide typical meals that are traditional to Guatemala.

Throughout the volunteer project, our local staff stays in contact with volunteers either with face-to-face visits or via email/telephone. With longer placements, we visit our volunteers every two weeks (when possible) and volunteers are always welcome at the local office. If project placement is local, we request that volunteers stop by the office once a week to keep us posted on how they are doing with their home stay and project. If project placement is very far, then our local staff members maintain communication by either email and/or phone.