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 in a sentence there is a fronting at the left — when an element of the sentence is moved so that it appears later and to give it more force—, as well as deciding whether a verb is copulative or if in a sentence the pronoun referring to the circumstantial complement of place is missing. In fact, the way the session is conducted is reminiscent of a review class, were it not for the fact that we are in a classroom on the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) campus and that the person at the blackboard is Aina, a fifth-year degree student.

gap that, at times, exists in the writing level of second-year high school studentsThe program is designed to address two situations: the need to reinforce the writing skills in Catalan and Spanish of first-year students who have some shortcomings 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, they don't repeat what has already been done in class, but rather detect and reinforce each student's weak points," 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's mainly to reinforce old content," explains the student, who wants to be an English teacher.

500 euros per mentor

The one leading today's session is Aina, a fifth-year student in the double degree of translation and applied languages. "At first, I didn't intend to participate in the mentoring sessions because I already teach private lessons in the afternoon and had my final degree project, so I couldn't manage everything. However, the university told me that some professors had thought of me and recommended me for it, so in the end, I signed up," she recalls. In fact, the dean explains that a pool is being created —the internships are remunerated with about 500 gross euros— so that students who wish can apply to be mentors, but 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 looked for students who might have been 'notable' but had that aptitude," admits Bach.

One of these aptitudes, without a doubt, must be patience. "Apart from the classes, I ask them a lot to send me their doubts by email, because we only have six sessions, and this way we can personalize them, and well... let's just say I send them more emails than they send me, but they are already first-year students and need to 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 encounter errors from things from five years ago that weren't clear, and they're coming up now in the first year of the degree. 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 do not drop out than on passing a subject. "What we certainly cannot do is lower the level, because there are minimums that must be met, but we have managed to ensure that none of the students who have gone through the mentoring have left the degree," concludes Bach.