Editorial 
Carlo Granados-Beltrán, PhD*

W
elcome to a new edition of GiST Journal. I want to start by thanking 
the members of our editorial and scientific committees, authors, and 
readers for their help during these uncertain times. This issue is a 
sample of the wide variety of topics in ELT researchers are interested 

in. Some contributions address disciplinary knowledge, for example, assessment and 
the teaching and learning of skills, whereas others contribute to the sociocultural 
component of ELT.  

Disciplinary contributions are represented by Romero-Villamil and Guzmán 
Martínez who inquired about how the implementation of instructional subtitled 
videos help students’ increase students’ range of vocabulary. The next two articles 
addressed assessment. Ramírez narrates his experience regarding the challenges faced 
when designing of a placement test for a Colombian public university and Giraldo 
discusses the implications of Task-Based Assessment for language classrooms. 

Authors Gözüküçük and Günbaş from Turkey present how fourth graders’ 
reading comprehension through computer-based reading texts. Also, Rincón-Ussa, 
Fandiño-Parra, and Cortés describe an implementation of ICT-mediated teaching 
strategies to promote both autonomy and collaborative learning in a teacher education 
program. An area that has not been quite explored in ELT is the ways English is 
taught to university students from other majors; in this direction, Torres-Escobar 
and Correa-López analyzed how bilingualism English-Spanish could be promoted in 
undergraduate psychology programs. 

In relation to sociocultural aspects, Nieto-Gómez and Clavijo-Olarte explored 
local literacies in an EAP program by using community assets. Vásquez-Guarnizo, 
Chía-Ríos and Tobar-Gómez inquired EFL students’ perceptions of gender 
stereotypes. In the same vein, Castillo and Flórez-Martelo addressed the experiences 
hard-of-hearing people when learning a foreign language. Also, García-Ponce studies 
the influence of discrimination in the field of TESOL in Mexico from the perspectives 
Mexican EFL teachers. Finally, Olaya and González-González present the impact of 



6                No. 21

Cooperative Learning to Foster Reading Skills in an engineering program. 

We hope to continue communicating findings and reflections from both Colombian 
and international English language teachers so that we consolidate a community of 
learning, practice, and research.  

*Carlo Granados-Beltran PhD Editor in Chief-  holds a PhD in Education from 
Universidad Santo Tomás, an MA in British Cultural Studies and ELT from the 
University of Warwick and an MA in Applied Linguistics to TEFL from Universidad 
Distrital. He is the Academic Director at the BA in Bilingual Education at ÚNICA. 
He has been teacher of the Language Department at Universidad Central, the BA 
programmes in Spanish and Languages and Spanish and English at Universidad 
Pedagógica Nacional and the BA in Modern Languages at Universidad Javeriana. Also, 
he is guest lecturer for the MA in Language Teaching at UPTC