The Pompeu strategy to raise the writing level of new students

BarcelonaWhen you enter the classroom, it's hard to know exactly what level of Catalan is being taught. In less than half an hour, they go from clarifying when a perquè is written together or separately to explaining how to justify that there is a left-hand topicalization in a sentence — when an element of the sentence is moved to appear later and give it more emphasis — as well as deciding whether a verb is copulative or if a sentence is missing the pronoun that refers to the circumstantial complement of place. In fact, the way the session is conducted resembles a review class, were it not for the fact that we are in a classroom on the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) campus and that the person at the blackboard is Aina, a fifth-year degree student.

gap that, sometimes, exists in the writing level with which 2nd year high school students emergeThe program is designed to address two situations: the need to strengthen the writing skills in Catalan and Spanish of first-year students who have some deficiencies or want to improve their writing level, and the need to help second-year students who have failed Catalan and/or Spanish language subjects. "These are not review classes, what has already been done in class is not repeated, but rather each student's weak points are identified and reinforced," insists Bach. In today's group, there are two cases: Marc, who wants to be a video game subtitle translator, is in his second year and failed Catalan in his first year; and Rubèn, who is in his first year but wanted to ask for reinforcement. "I had already done it in ESO and baccalaureate and it is mainly to reinforce old content," explains the student, who wants to be an English teacher.

500 euros per mentor

The session today is led by Aina, a fifth-year student in the double degree in translation and applied languages. "At first, I had no intention of participating in the mentoring because I already teach private lessons in the afternoon and had my final degree project, so I didn't have time for everything. But from the university, they told me that there were professors who had thought of me and recommended me for it, and in the end, I signed up," she recalls. In fact, the dean explains that a pool is being created —the internships are paid around 500 euros gross— for students who want to apply to be mentors, but that in many cases, it is the professors themselves who recommend the students they see as most capable. "It's not just a matter of them being students with very good grades; there's also a very important part of empathy and knowing how to connect with first-year students. Sometimes, I have specifically sought out students who might have been good, but who had that aptitude," admits Bach.

One of these aptitudes, undoubtedly, must be patience. "Besides the classes, I really ask them to send me their doubts by email, because we only have six sessions, and that way we can personalize it. And well... let's just say I send them more emails than they send me, but they are already in their first year of university and should know what to do," admits Aina. She explains that a significant part of the sessions is dedicated to spelling mistakes, but they mainly focus on text production. "We find errors from things from five years ago that weren't clear, and they come up now in the first year. We have to try to raise the level, especially to be able to continue," describes the student. In this regard, the dean insists that the program is more focused on ensuring that students don't drop out rather than on passing a subject. "What we certainly cannot do is lower the level, because there are certain minimums that must be met, but we have managed that none of the students who have gone through the mentoring have left the degree," concludes Bach.